In vitro cleavage of the carbon-phosphorus bond of phosphonopyruvate by cell extracts of an environmental Burkholderia cepacia isolate.

Cell-free extracts of Burkholderia cepacia strain Pal6 catalysed the degradation of 3-phosphonopyruvate to pyruvate and inorganic phosphate; the products were detected in equimolar quantities. The stable in vitro activity responsible was distinct from both phosphonoactealdehyde hydrolase and phosphonoacetate hydrolase and from phosphoenolpyruvate phosphomutase and appears to represent a novel mode of carbon-phosphorus bond cleavage.