Sphingomonas wittichiiRW1 degrades chlorinated dibenzofurans and dibenzo-p-dioxins viametacleavage. We used inverse PCR to amplifydxnB2, a gene encoding one of threemeta-cleavage product (MCP) hydrolases identified in the organism that are homologues of BphD involved in biphenyl catabolism. Purified DxnB2 catalyzed the hydrolysis of 8-OH 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoate (HOPDA) approximately six times faster than for HOPDA at saturating substrate concentrations. Moreover, the specificity of DxnB2 for HOPDA (k_cat/K_m= 1.2 × 10⁷M⁻¹s⁻¹) was about half that of the BphDs ofBurkholderia xenovoransLB400 andRhodococcus globerulusP6, two potent polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-degrading strains. Interestingly, DxnB2 transformed 3-Cl and 4-OH HOPDAs, compounds that inhibit the BphDs and limit PCB degradation. DxnB2 had a higher specificity for 9-Cl HOPDA than for HOPDA but a lower specificity for 8-Cl HOPDA (k_cat/K_m= 1.7 × 10⁶M⁻¹s⁻¹), the chlorinated analog of 8-OH HOPDA produced during dibenzofuran catabolism. Phylogenetic analyses based on structure-guided sequence alignment revealed that DxnB2 belongs to a previously unrecognized class of MCP hydrolases, evolutionarily divergent from the BphDs although the physiological substrates of both enzyme types are HOPDAs. However, both classes of enzymes have mainly small hydrophobic residues lining the subsite that binds the C-6 phenyl of HOPDA, in contrast to the bulky hydrophobic residues (Phe106, Phe135, Trp150, and Phe197) found in the class II enzymes that prefer substrates possessing a C-6 alkyl. Thr196 and/or Asn203 appears to be an important determinant of specificity for DxnB2, potentially forming hydrogen bonds with the 8-OH substituent. This study demonstrates that the substrate specificities of evolutionarily divergent hydrolases may be useful for degrading mixtures of pollutants, such as PCBs.

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