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Sugar alcohols (polyols) have important roles as nutrients, anti-freezing agents, and scavengers of free radicals in cold-adapted bacteria, but the characteristics of polyol dehydrogenases in cold-adapted bacteria remain largely unknown. In this study, based on the observation that a cold-adapted bacterium Pseudomonas mandelii JR-1 predominantly utilized D-sorbitol as its carbon source, among the four polyols examined (D-galactitol, D-mannitol, D-sorbitol, or D-xylitol), we cloned and characterized a sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH, EC 1.1.1.14) belonging to the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase family from this bacterium (the SDH hereafter referred to as PmSDH). PmSDH contained Asn111, Ser140, Tyr153, and Lys157 as catalytic active site residues and existed as a ∼67 kDa dimer in size-exclusion chromatography. PmSDH converted D-sorbitol to D-fructose using NAD+ as a coenzyme and, vice versa, D-fructose to D-sorbitol using NADH as a coenzyme. PmSDH maintained its conformational flexibility, secondary and tertiary structures, and thermal stability at 4–25°C. At 40°C, PmSDH was rapidly denatured. These results indicate that PmSDH, which has a flexible structure and a high catalytic activity at colder temperatures, is well-suited to sorbitol utilization in the cold-adapted bacterium P. mandelii JR-1.