5. CONCLUSION

The strain Arthrobacter sp. ZJUTW exhibited high degradation efficiency towards DBP. Based on the results of the genome sequencing and the transcriptome, we found the key gene pehA and thepht gene cluster and pca gene cluster involved in DBP degradation. The pehA and pht gene cluster are located in plasmid pQL1, and the pca gene cluster is in the chromosome. The particularity of the pht and pca gene cluster is determined by homology comparison analysis with reported PAEs-degradation gene clusters. The plasmid was successfully eliminated by using SDS from strain ZJUTW, and the plasmid elimination the strain ZJUTW could not grow in BSM with DBP was as the sole carbon source. The result demonstrates that plasmid pQL1 is critical for the strain ZJUTW to degrade DBP. To our best knowledge, we proposed a new complete metabolic pathway from DBP to Acetyl-CoA in the genus Arthrobacter for the first time.