A catecholic 9,10-seco steroid as a product of aerobic catabolism of cholic acid by a Pseudomonas sp.

A mutant of the efficient bile acid-utilizing Pseudomonas putida ATCC 31752 was found to accumulate three major catabolites on aerobic growth on cholic acid. One of these catabolites was isolated and identified as 3,4,7,12 beta-tetrahydroxy-9,10-seco-1,3,5(10)-androstatriene-9,17-dione (2). This is the first catecholic 9,10-secosteroid isolated from the microbial degradation of bile acids or sterols and confirms the role of such secosteroids in the microbial degradative pathway for steroids.