Nicotine and some related alkaloids in tobacco and tobacco wastes are harmful to health and the environment, and a major environmental requirement is to remove them from tobacco and tobacco wastes. In this study, an isolated strain, S16, identified as Pseudomonas putida biotype A, was used to investigate nicotine degradation. Possible intermediates were identified based on the results of NMR, Fourier-transform (FT)-IR and UV spectroscopy, GC-MS and high-resolution MS (HR-MS) analysis. The pathway of nicotine degradation in P. putida was proposed to be from nicotine to 2,5-dihydroxypyridine through the intermediates N-methylmyosmine, 29-hydroxynicotine, pseudooxynicotine, 3-pyridinebutanal,C-oxo, 3-succinoylpyridine and 6-hydroxy-3-succinoylpyridine. N-Methylmyosmine, 2,5-dihydroxypyridine and succinic acid were detected and satisfactorily verified for the first time as intermediates of nicotine degradation. In addition, an alcohol compound, 1-butanone,4-hydroxy-1-(3-pyridinyl), was found to be a novel product of nicotine degradation. These findings provide new insights into the microbial metabolism of nicotine and the environmentally friendly route of nicotine degradation.

A new technology for 6-hydroxy-3-succinoyl-pyridine (HSP) production from (S)-nicotine in tobacco waste by whole cells of a Pseudomonas sp. has been developed. When deionized water was used in the transformation reaction as a medium and the initial pH value of reaction mixture was adjusted to 7.0, 1.45 g/L HSP was produced from 3 g/L of nicotine in 5 h with 3.4 g/L of cells in a 5-L flask at 30 degrees C. HSP could be easily purified from the reaction without perplexing separation steps. A quantity of 1.3 g of HSP was recovered without impurity, and the overall yield of HSP was 43.8% (w/w), based on an initial concentration of 3.0 g/L of nicotine in reaction. This biotransformation made it possible to convert nicotine in tobacco wastes with high nicotine content into valuable compounds.

A Pseudomonas sp. grew with nicotine optimally 3 g l(-1) and at 30 degrees C and pH 7. Nicotine was fully degraded within 10 h. The resting cells degraded nicotine in tobacco solid waste completely within 6 h in 0.02 m sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7) at maximally 56 mg nicotine h(-1) g dry cell(-1).

Background: Mechanistic information is limited on pyridine ␤-hydroxylation monooxygenases. Results: The catalytic mechanism of HspB was determined. Conclusion: An observable C (4a) -hydroperoxyflavin intermediate reacts with 6-hydroxy-3-succinoyl-pyridine to form 2,5-dihydroxypyridine and succinate during the catalysis. Significance: This study expands our understanding of pyridine hydroxylases and their pyridine metabolisms.

Valtrate is a pharmacologically active epoxyiridoid ester found in the roots and rhizomes of Valeriana jatamansi Jones. The plant produces only small amounts of this metabolite naturally, and so induction of hairy roots as well as elicitation can be useful to increase its commercial production. In this study, strain R1601 of Agrobacterium rhizogenes was used to induce hairy roots in V. jatamansi, and stable hairy root cultures of V. jatamansi were established successfully. The influence of three exogenous elicitors including methyl jasmonate (MJ), jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) on valtrate production in the hairy root cultures of V. jatamansi was also investigated, and the 25-day-old hairy root cultures were treated with different concentrations of the elicitors at exposure time of 7 days. This present study showed that MJ (100 mg/L) highly promoted valtrate production at 7 days after elicitation, to a level of 3.63 times higher than that of non-elicited control. SA did not significantly increase the production of valtrate. This is the first-time study to assess the elicitation of hairy root cultures to promote valtrate biosynthesis in V. jatamansi and the resulting experiments demonstrated that MJ was indeed a potent inducer of valtrate biosynthesis.