Targeted Mutagenesis Reveals Noncanonical Genetic Requirements for Carbon Monoxide Oxidation.

In Paraburkholderia terrae COX, targeted mutagenesis shows rcoM, coxL, coxF, and coxG are essential for CO oxidation, while coxD, coxE, and mocA are non-essential.

• Why it matters: CO oxidation by MoCu CODH is widespread, but CODH maturation and gene-function links are not verified across systems, risking incorrect inference of CO-oxidizing capacity from gene presence alone.
• What they did: The authors performed targeted mutagenesis across the reduced, reorganized cox gene cluster in Paraburkholderia terrae COX, comparing CO oxidation phenotypes to Afipia carboxidovorans OM5 and deleting coxL paralogs singly and in double knockouts.
• The result: Accessory coxDEF deletions produced distinct phenotypes versus Afipia carboxidovorans OM5, and removing both coxL paralogs provides first molecular evidence that form-II CODH does not contribute to CO oxidation in vivo in these bacteria.

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