PathBank

Pathway Description

Ethylene Glycol Degradation

Escherichia coli

Category:

Metabolite Pathway

Sub-Category:

Metabolic

Created: 2015-10-13

Last Updated: 2025-01-24

Ethylene glycol, or 1,2-ethanediol, is used to produce substances such as plastics, solvents, surfactants, explosives and cosmetics. Many of these are discarded into waste treatment and landfills. Both aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms can degrade ethylene glycol. While ethylene glycol cannot be used as a carbon source by wild-type E.coli, it can be utilized by isolated mutant strains. These strains contain two regulatory mutations: a mutation that increases propanediol oxidoreductase levels which functions to metabolize propanediol, and increased activity of Glycolaldehyde dehydrogenase to produce glycolate from glycolaldehyde.

References

Ethylene Glycol Degradation References

Boronat A, Caballero E, Aguilar J: Experimental evolution of a metabolic pathway for ethylene glycol utilization by Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1983 Jan;153(1):134-9.

Pubmed: 6336729

Dwyer DF, Tiedje JM: Degradation of ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycols by methanogenic consortia. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1983 Jul;46(1):185-90.

Pubmed: 6614903

Conway T, Ingram LO: Similarity of Escherichia coli propanediol oxidoreductase (fucO product) and an unusual alcohol dehydrogenase from Zymomonas mobilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J Bacteriol. 1989 Jul;171(7):3754-9. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.7.3754-3759.1989.

Pubmed: 2661535

Chen YM, Lu Z, Lin EC: Constitutive activation of the fucAO operon and silencing of the divergently transcribed fucPIK operon by an IS5 element in Escherichia coli mutants selected for growth on L-1,2-propanediol. J Bacteriol. 1989 Nov;171(11):6097-105. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.11.6097-6105.1989.

Pubmed: 2553671

Lu Z, Lin EC: The nucleotide sequence of Escherichia coli genes for L-fucose dissimilation. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Jun 26;17(12):4883-4. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.12.4883.

Pubmed: 2664711

Hidalgo E, Chen YM, Lin EC, Aguilar J: Molecular cloning and DNA sequencing of the Escherichia coli K-12 ald gene encoding aldehyde dehydrogenase. J Bacteriol. 1991 Oct;173(19):6118-23. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.19.6118-6123.1991.

Pubmed: 1917845

Aiba H, Baba T, Hayashi K, Inada T, Isono K, Itoh T, Kasai H, Kashimoto K, Kimura S, Kitakawa M, Kitagawa M, Makino K, Miki T, Mizobuchi K, Mori H, Mori T, Motomura K, Nakade S, Nakamura Y, Nashimoto H, Nishio Y, Oshima T, Saito N, Sampei G, Horiuchi T, et al.: A 570-kb DNA sequence of the Escherichia coli K-12 genome corresponding to the 28.0-40.1 min region on the linkage map. DNA Res. 1996 Dec 31;3(6):363-77. doi: 10.1093/dnares/3.6.363.

Pubmed: 9097039

Blattner FR, Plunkett G 3rd, Bloch CA, Perna NT, Burland V, Riley M, Collado-Vides J, Glasner JD, Rode CK, Mayhew GF, Gregor J, Davis NW, Kirkpatrick HA, Goeden MA, Rose DJ, Mau B, Shao Y: The complete genome sequence of Escherichia coli K-12. Science. 1997 Sep 5;277(5331):1453-62. doi: 10.1126/science.277.5331.1453.

Pubmed: 9278503

Highlighted elements will appear in red.

Highlight Compounds

	Ethylene glycol
	Glycolaldehyde
	Glycolic acid
	Hydrogen Ion
	NAD
	NADH
	Water

Highlight Proteins

	Lactaldehyde dehydrogenase
	Lactaldehyde reductase

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