AEM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 30 October 2009

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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.02538-09
Copyright (c) 2009, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

7-Ketocholesterol Catabolism by Rhodococcus jostii RHA1

Jacques Mathieu, William W. Mohn^*, Lindsay D. Eltis, Justin LeBlanc, Gord Stewart, Carola Dresen, Kenji Okamoto, and Pedro J.J. Alvarez

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Department of Biotechnology, Tottori University

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: wmohn{at}interchange.ubc.ca.

Oxysterols from steroid autooxidation have numerous harmful effects, but their biodegradation is poorly understood. Microarrays were used to study mineralization of the most common oxysterol, 7-ketocholesterol (7KC), by Rhodococcus jostii RHA1. Growth on 7KC versus cholesterol, resulted in 363 differentially expressed genes, including up-regulation of two large gene clusters putatively encoding steroid catabolism. Despite this difference, 7KC degradation required key genes involved in cholesterol degradation, indicating a common catabolic route.