Characterization of the Initial Reactions during the Cometabolic Oxidation of Methyl tert-Butyl Ether by Propane-Grown Mycobacterium vaccae JOB5 

 -  Applied and Environmental MicroBiology, 69(2), p.796-804, 2003 .
<br/><br/> The initial reactions in the cometabolic oxidation of the gasoline oxygenate, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), by Mycobacterium vaccae JOB5 have been characterized. Two products, tert-butyl formate (TBF)and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA), rapidly accumulated extracellularly when propane-grown cells were incubated with MTBE. Lower rates of TBF and TBA production from MTBE were also observed with cells grown on 1- or 2-propanol, while neither product was generated from MTBE by cells grown on casein-yeast extract-dextrose broth. Kinetic studies with propane-grown cells demonstrated that TBF is the dominant (>80