New principle of aromatic metabolism

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Aromatic compounds constitute the second most important class of natural organic compounds, next to carbohydrates. The aerobic pathways for aromatic degradation are considered established. Molecular oxygen is used for cleavage of the stable carbon ring. All intermediates of the pathways are free. This project aims at elucidating a new principle of aerobic aromatic metabolism. Thereby, the ring is not cleaved by oxygen and the intermediates are bound as coenzyme A thiosters. The studied examples concern the metabolism of 2-aminobenzoate (anthranilate), benzoate and phenylacetate in various bacterial genera. Three peculiarities are of special interest, (1) the unexpected role of coenzyme A in activating the aromatic ring, (2) the novel oxygenases that hydroxylate and dearomatize the ring, (3) the enzymes which finally hydrolytically open the dearomatized ring.