A novel degradation mechanism of naphthenic acids by marine Pseudoalteromonas sp.

Naphthenic acids (NAs) are a persistent toxic organic pollutant that occur in different environment worldwide and cause serious threat to the ecosystem and public health. However, knowledge on the behavior and fate of NAs in marine environments still remains unknown. In this study, the degradation mechanism of NAs (cyclohexylacetic acid, CHAA) was investigated using an common indigenous marine Pseudoalteromonas sp. The results showed that CHAA could be degraded completely under aerobic condition, but could not be utilized directly under anaerobic condition. Interestingly, transcriptome and key enzyme activity results showed the CHAA degradation pathway induced under aerobic condition could still work in anaerobic condition. The degradation was activated by acetyl-CoA transferase and sequentially formed the corresponding cyclohexene, alcohol, and ketone with the assistance of related enzymes, and finally cleaved by hydroxymethylglutarate-CoA lyase. Besides, there was a positive correlation between chemotaxis and aerobic degradation genes (r = 0.976, P < 0.05), the chemotaxis would enhance bacterium movement and NAs biodegradation. It is proposed that bacterium could translocate to NAs and accomplish biodegradation from aerobic to anaerobic environments, which was a new anaerobic degradation pathway of NAs. This study provides new insights into the fate of NAs and other organic contaminants in marine environment.