Application of nitroarene dioxygenases in the design of novel strains that degrade chloronitrobenzenes.

Widespread application of chloronitrobenzenes as feedstocks for the production of industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals has resulted in extensive environmental contamination with these toxic compounds, where they pose significant risks to the health of humans and wildlife. While biotreatment in general is an attractive solution for remediation, its effectiveness is limited with chloronitrobenzenes due to the small number of strains that can effectively mineralize these compounds and their ability to degrade only select isomers. To address this need, we created engineered strains with a novel degradation pathway that reduces the total number of steps required to convert chloronitrobenzenes into compounds of central metabolism. We examined the ability of 2-nitrotoluene 2,3-dioxygenase from Acidovorax sp. strain JS42, nitrobenzene 1,2-dioxygenase (NBDO) from Comamonas sp. strain JS765, as well as active-site mutants of NBDO to generate chlorocatechols from chloronitrobenzenes, and identified the most efficient enzymes. Introduction of the wild-type NBDO and the F293Q variant into Ralstonia sp. strain JS705, a strain carrying the modified ortho pathway for chlorocatechol metabolism, resulted in bacterial strains that were able to sustainably grow on all three chloronitrobenzene isomers without addition of co-substrates or co-inducers. These first-generation engineered strains demonstrate the utility of nitroarene dioxygenases in expanding the metabolic capabilities of bacteria and provide new options for improved biotreatment of chloronitrobenzene-contaminated sites

The KKˉπK \bar K \pi decay of the f1(1285)f_1(1285) and its nature as a K∗Kˉ−ccK^* \bar K -cc molecule

We investigate the decay of $f_1(1285) \to \pi K \bar K$ with the assumption that the $f_1(1285)$ is dynamically generated from the $K^* \bar{K} - cc$ interaction. In addition to the tree level diagrams that proceed via $f_1(1285) \to K^* \bar{K} - cc \to \pi K \bar K$, we take into account also the final state interactions of $K \bar K \to K \bar K$ and $\pi K \to \pi K$. The partial decay width and mass distributions of $f_1(1285) \to \pi K \bar K$ are evaluated. We get a value for the partial decay width which, within errors, is in fair agreement with the experimental result. The contribution from the tree level diagrams is dominant, but the final state interactions have effects in the mass distributions. The predicted mass distributions are significantly different from phase space and tied to the $K^* \bar{K} - cc$ nature of the $f_1(1285)$ state.Comment: Published versio

B0→D0Dˉ0K0B^0 \to D^0 \bar D^0 K^0, B+→D0Dˉ0K+B^+ \to D^0 \bar D^0 K^+ and the scalar DDˉD \bar D bound state

We study the $B^0$ decay to $D^0 \bar D^0 K^0$ based on the chiral unitary model that generates the X(3720) resonance, and make predictions for the $D^0 \bar D^0$ invariant mass distribution. From the shape of the distribution, the existence of the resonance below threshold could be induced. We also predict the rate of production of the X(3720) resonance to the $D^0 \bar D^0$ mass distribution with no free parameters.Comment: 9 pages, 17 figure

Bˉ0\bar B^0, B−B^- and Bˉs0\bar B^0_s decays into J/ψJ/\psi and KKˉK \bar K or πη\pi \eta

We study the $\bar B^0_s \to J/\psi K^+ K^-$, $\bar B^0 \to J/\psi K^+ K^-$, $B^- \to J/\psi K^0 K^-$, $\bar B^0 \to J/\psi \pi^0 \eta$ and $B^- \to J/\psi \pi^- \eta$ decays and compare their mass distributions with those obtained for the $\bar B^0_s \to J/\psi \pi^+ \pi^-$ and $\bar B^0 \to J/\psi \pi^+ \pi^-$. The approach followed consist in a factorization of the weak part and the hadronization part into a factor which is common to all the processes. Then what makes the reactions different are some trivial Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements and the weight by which the different pairs of mesons appear in a primary step plus their final state interaction. These elements are part of the theory and thus, up to a global normalization factor, all the invariant mass distributions are predicted with no free parameters. Comparison is made with the limited experimental information available. Further comparison of these results with coming LHCb measurements will be very valuable to make progress in our understanding of the meson-meson interaction and the nature of the low lying scalar meson resonances, $f_0(500), f_0(980)$ and $a_0(980)$.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; v2: discussion added, references added, final version published in EPJ