New principle of aromatic metabolism

芳香化合物是仅次于碳水化合物的第二大类天然有机化合物。认为芳香族化合物的好氧降解途径已经建立。分子氧被用于裂解稳定的碳环。这些途径的所有中间体都是免费的。本课题旨在阐明芳香族有氧代谢的新原理。因此，环不会被氧切割，中间产物以辅酶A硫酸酯的形式结合。所研究的例子涉及2-氨基苯甲酸酯(邻氨基苯甲酸酯)、苯甲酸酯和苯乙酸酯在不同细菌属中的代谢。有三个特性特别令人感兴趣，(1)辅酶A在激活芳香环中出人意料的作用，(2)使芳环羟化和脱芳香化的新型加氧酶，(3)最终水解性打开脱芳环的酶。

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.