Genome sequence of the bile salt-degrading bacterium Novosphingobium sp. strain Chol11, a model organism for bacterial steroid catabolism

Abstract

Many bacteria from different phylogenetic groups are able to degrade eukaryotic steroid compounds, but the underlying metabolic pathways are still not well understood. Novosphingobium sp. strain Chol11 is a steroid-degrading alphaproteobacterium. Its genome sequence reveals that it lacks several genes for steroid degradation known to exist in other model organisms.