Isolation and genomic analysis of 11-aminoundecanoic acid-degrading bacterium sp. JG-B from nylon 11 enrichment culture.

Nylon 11 is a polymer synthesized from 11-aminoundecanoic acid, and widely used in commercial manufacturing. In this study, we describe the isolation of the first organism capable of metabolizing 11-aminoundecanoic acid from nylon 11 enrichment culture. The strain shows rapid growth on 11-aminoundecanoic acid as a sole source of carbon, nitrogen, and energy. Furthermore, the genome sequence of strain JG-B was deciphered and shown to belong to genus . Many genes encoding putative extracellular hydrolases, as well as homologues of nylon 6 hydrolases (NylB and NylA) were identified, suggesting the metabolic versatility and possibility that this organism could also depolymerase nylon 11 polymers.