A Newly Discovered Bacterium in the Family Acetobacteraceae

Available for licensing and commercial development is a newly discovered bacterium in the Acetobacteraceae family. This bacterium was isolated, characterized and grown from lymph nodes of a patient with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), a rare genetic disorder that impairs the immune system.

This Gram-negative bacterium is an aerobic, facultative methylotroph that produces yellow pigmented colonies. The closest nucleic acid sequence match was to Gluconacetobacter sacchari (95.7% similarity) of the acetic acid bacteria. The newly described bacterium belongs to a new genus and species in the Acetobacteraceae family and was named Granulibacter bethesdensis. Acetobacteraceae are characterized by their ability to convert alcohol (ethanol) to acetic acid in the presence of air. Members of this family are used industrially in the production of vinegar, and are encountered during fermentation of wine.

G. bethesdensis can breakdown methanol, formaldehyde, ethanol and their intermediate breakdown products into non-toxic end-products. Examples of non-toxic end-products include carbon dioxide, water, and acetic acid.

The invention provides the complete genome sequence from the bacterium. Also included are permission to purify and utilize unique enzymes that the bacterium uses to degrade organic materials, for example methanol dehydrogenase, formaldehyde-activating enzyme, and methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (NADP+).