In:
mBio, American Society for Microbiology, Vol. 9, No. 1 ( 2018-03-07)
Abstract:
Microbial steroid degradation is a critical process for biomass decomposition in natural environments, for removal of important pollutants during wastewater treatment, and for pathogenesis of bacteria associated with tuberculosis and other bacteria. To date, microbial steroid degradation was mainly studied in a few model organisms, while the ecological significance of steroid degradation remained largely unexplored. This study provides the first analysis of aerobic steroid degradation in diverse natural, engineered, and host-associated environments via bioinformatic analysis of an extensive metagenome data set. We found that steroid-degrading bacteria are globally distributed and prevalent in wastewater treatment plants, soil, plant rhizospheres, and the marine environment, especially in marine sponges. We show that the ecological significance as well as the taxonomic and biochemical diversity of bacterial steroid degradation has been largely underestimated. This study greatly expands our ecological and evolutionary understanding of microbial steroid degradation.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2161-2129
,
2150-7511
DOI:
10.1128/mBio.02345-17
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Society for Microbiology
Publication Date:
2018
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2557172-2
