Nocardia, carbon sources utilized

Two strains were isolated and purified, Pseudomonas sp. CDT-4, and Nocardia aster-oides, CDT-4b (ATCC 202160 and 202161, respectively). The microbes were passed through a multiple screen, first to allow growth on dibenzothiophene (DBT) as a sole source of sulfur, and then on fossil fuels, to identify organisms capable of desulfurization without metabolizing the DBT phenyl ring structures. N. asteroides sp. CDT-4b was found to metabolize DBT. The Pseudomonas species was found to utilize trace levels of sulfate from media and was found to be incapable of growth on DBT as a sole source of sulfur. However, the co-culture could remove more than 20% sulfur, with supplementation of a second sulfur-free carbon source. 

Mahmoudian et al. have tested 18 organisms that use ethene or propene as the carbon source, including Aerococcus, Alcaligenes, Micrococcus, and Staphylococcus spp., in the epoxidation of short-chain aliphatic olefins, and all of them stereospecifically produce (P)-l,2-epoxypropane (3, 90-96% ee), (R)-l,2-epoxybutane (4, 90-98% ee), and 2R, 3R)-2,3-dimethyloxirane (6, 64-88% ee) from the corresponding olefins (Scheme 13.1) [75]. Other alkene-utilizing bacteria from the genus of Nocardia, Xunthobacter, Mycobacterium, etc. have also been used in the production of 3,4, and 8 with up to 98% ee (Scheme 13.1) [76, 77]. 

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