CLONING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A CHROMOSOMAL GENE-CLUSTER, PAH, THAT ENCODES THE UPPER PATHWAY FOR PHENANTHRENE AND NAPHTHALENE UTILIZATION BY PSEUDOMONAS-PUTIDA OUS82

A 25-kb DNA Sail fragment cloned from the chromosomal DNA of Pseudomonas putida OUS82, which utilizes phenanthrene (Phn(+)) and naphthalene (Nah(+)), carried all of the genes necessary for upper naphthalene catabolism. Cosmid recombinant pIP7 complemented both the Nah(-) and Phn(-) defects of OUS8211 (Trp(-) Nah(-) Phn(-) Sal(+) [salicylate utilizing] Hna(+) [1-hydroxy-2-naphthoate utilizing]) and only the Phn(-) defect of OUS8212 (Trp(-) Nah(-) Phn(-) Sal(-) Hna(+)). The results indicate that strain OUS82 uses different pathways after o-hydroxycarboxylic aromatics in the catabolism of naphthalene and phenanthrene.