Degredation of m-cresol by Pseudomonas putida - genome wide analysis

We have constructed the hybrid pathway for the degradation of aromatic pollutant, m-cresol, by transferring the phenol degradation genes pheBA on the broad-host-range plasmid pEST1412 into Pseudomonas putida strain PaW1 carrying the toluene catabolic TOL plasmid pWW0. The growth of bacteria on m-cresol required several genetic rearrangements on TOL plasmid and recombination events between plasmid and bacterial chromosome. Cre+ mutant colonies which emerged on m-cresol minimal plates had lost the ability to grow on m-xylene due to the inactivation of the upper xyl operon in pWW0. Without selection on m-cresol, Cre+ mutants were able to revert to Xyl+ phenotype, thereby indicating that genetic information for m-xylene degradation was not lost but retained in bacteria in an inactive form. This dataset contains the whole genome sequencing data of the P. putida Cre+ strains Cre1, Cre2, Cre4 and Cre7. Genomic DNA was isolated from bacteria grown on minimal agar plates containing m-cresol as an only carbon source. The genomes of Xyl+ revertants derived from these Cre+ strains were also sequenced (bacteria were grown on minimal plates in the presence of m-xylene) and the genome of P. putida strain PaW1 used in the current study was sequenced as a reference (also cultivated on m-xylene).