Team:Purdue/Composite Part
Benzene Degradation: Upper Operon
The part contains a TetR coding region under the control of a constitutive promoter and an operon under the control of a TetR promoter. The operon encodes for a three enzyme- six gene pathway that converts benzene to 2-hydroxymuconate-6-semialdehyde, going through cis-1,2-dihydrobenzene-1,2-diol and catechol as intermediates. This pathway can then be combined with a separate pathway (device unsubmitted) to convert 2-hydroxymuconate-6-semialdehyde to the final products of pyruvate and acetyl-CoA. The enzymes used are benzene-1,2 dioxygenase, cis-1,2-dihydrobenzene-1,2-diol dehydrogenase, and catechol-2,3-dioxygenase. We refer to this pathway as the "upper operon," and the unsubmitted pathway as the "lower operon," which together degrade benzene for incorporation into metabolism. The whole pathway was split into two operons due to their large size.
