Ethylbenzene Pathway Map
(Anaerobic)

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This pathway was started by Dr. Alfred Spormann, Stanford University and completed by Ryan McLeish, University of Minnesota.

Ethylbenzene is one of the most water soluble aromatic hydrocarbons. Under aerobic conditions ethylbenzene degradation involves oxygenase reactions. Anaerobic ethylbenzene mineralization under denitrifying conditions was demonstrated for pure bacterial cultures (Rabus and Widdel 1995, Ball et al., 1996, and Kühner et al., 2005).

Anaerobic degradation of ethylbenzene is initiated by a dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to 1-phenyl ethanol, and subsequent conversion to benzoate (or benzoyl-CoA). Benzoate (or benzoyl-CoA) is a central intermediate in anaerobic degradation of a variety of aromatic hydrocarbons. The pathway for anaerobic ethylbenzene oxidation to benzoate is based on Kühner et al., 2005. The source of metabolic energy for acetophenone carboxylation is hydrolysis of ATP (Jobst et al., 2010).

The following is a text-format ethylbenzene anaerobic degradation pathway map. An organism which can initiate the pathway is given, but other organisms may also carry out later steps. Follow the links for more information on compounds or reactions. This map is also available in graphic (9k) format.

                         Ethylbenzene
                 Aromatoleum aromaticum EbN1
                              |
                              |
                              | ethylbenzene
                              | dehydrogenase
                              |
                              v 
                       1-Phenylethanol
                              |
                              |
                              | 1-phenylethanol               
                              | dehydrogenase 
                              |
                              v
                        Acetophenone
                              |
                              |
                              | acetophenone
                              | carboxylase
                              |             
                              v
                      Benzoyl acetate
                              |
                              |
                              | benzoyl acetate-CoA
                              | ligase
                              | 
                              v  
                     Benzoyl acetyl-CoA 
                              |
                              |
                              | benzoyl acetyl-CoA
                              | thiolase
                              | 
                              v                               
                  Benzoyl-CoA + Acetyl-CoA 
                      |              |
                      |              |
                      |              |
                      |              |
                      |              |
                      V              V 
                    to the         Intermediary
              Anaerobic Benzoate   Metabolism (KEGG) 
                   Pathway          
                              


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Page Author(s): Alfred Spormann and Ryan McLeish

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