Summary The marine γ‐Proteobacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis is highly specialized in the assimilation of aliphatic hydrocarbons, and makes up a large part of the biomass in oil‐polluted marine environments. In addition to the previously identified alkane hydroxylase AlkB1, a second alkane hydroxylase (AlkB2) showing 65% identity to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa AlkB2 alkane hydroxylase was identified. Unlike alkB1 , alkB2 is not...

Summary To clone novel type 1 Baeyer‐Villiger monooxygenase (BVMO) genes, we isolated or collected 25 bacterial strains able to grow on alicyclic compounds. Twelve of the bacterial strains yielded polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fragments with highly degenerate primers based on the sequences of known and putative BVMOs. All these fragments were found to encode peptides homologous to published BVMO sequences. The complete BVMO...

Summary We isolated Gram‐positive alkane‐degraders from soil and a tricking‐bed reactor, and show using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with degenerate alkane hydroxylase primers and Southern blots that most Rhodococcus isolates contain three to five quite divergent homologues of the Pseudomonas putida GPo1 alkB gene. Two Mycobacterium isolates each contain one homologue, however there is no evidence for the presence of alkB h...

We have developed highly degenerate oligonucleotides for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of genes related to the Pseudomonas oleovorans GPo1 and Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 alkane hydroxylases, based on a number of highly conserved sequence motifs. In all Gram‐negative and in two out of three Gram‐positive strains able to grow on medium‐ (C 6 –C 11 ) or long‐chain n ‐alkanes (C 12 –C 16 ), PCR products of the expected...