A genome-scale metabolic model for the denitrifying bacterium Thauera sp. MZ1T accurately predicts degradation of pollutants and production of polymers
Fig 2
Metabolic properties of Thauera sp. MZ1T represented in iThauera861.
Anaerobically (left side), iThauera861 deploys six specific pathways to degrade aromatic compounds, as depicted inside the cell diagram (from left to right): 4-chlorobenzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, p-cresol, aniline, and phenylacetic acid. These metabolites are converted into a common intermediate, benzoyl-CoA, and finally into acetyl-CoA and pyruvate as the main compounds to connect with global C metabolism. In absence of oxygen, iThauera861 employs nitrate (NO3) as the main electron acceptor, converting the NO3- into N2 through the denitrification pathway, or ammonium (NH4+) using DNRA. In the presence of oxygen (right side), iThauera861 contains specific enzymes to oxidize aromatic compounds such as benzene, toluene, benzoate, and derivatives and convert them into pyruvate. Oxygen is employed as the key electron acceptor instead of NO3-. In both conditions, the M-model can produce PHB using acetyl-CoA as the main C precursor, with higher yields of PHB biosynthesis estimated in presence of oxygen. iThauera861 contains six specific EPS biosynthetic reactions using dTDP-D-N-acetylfucosamine (brown), dTDP-L-rhamnose (purple), UDP-D-galactose (blue), and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (orange) in different proportions.