Immune responses of a wall lizard to whole-body exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation

This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund [ESF]) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program ‘‘Education and Lifelong Learning’’ of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) – Research Funding Program: THALES. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund. UoA – MIS 375784: ‘‘Biological effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields: a multidisciplinary approach’’ grant coordinated by L.H. Margaritis

High activity catechol 1,2-dioxygenase from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain KB2 as a useful tool in cis,cis-muconic acid production

This is the first report of a catechol 1,2-dioxygenase from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain KB2 with high activity against catechol and its methyl derivatives. This enzyme was maximally active at pH 8.0 and 40 °C and the half-life of the enzyme at this temperature was 3 h. Kinetic studies showed that the value of K(m) and V(max) was 12.8 μM and 1,218.8 U/mg of protein, respectively. During our studies on kinetic properties of the catechol 1,2-dioxygenase we observed substrate inhibition at >80 μM. The nucleotide sequence of the gene encoding the S. maltophilia strain KB2 catechol 1,2-dioxygenase has high identity with other catA genes from members of the genus Pseudomonas. The deduced 314-residue sequence of the enzyme corresponds to a protein of molecular mass 34.5 kDa. This enzyme was inhibited by competitive inhibitors (phenol derivatives) only by ca. 30 %. High tolerance against condition changes is desirable in industrial processes. Our data suggest that this enzyme could be of use as a tool in production of cis,cis-muconic acid and its derivatives