Hi I am Tingyi,

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I am working on the bacterial degradation of estrogens, which are considered to be major micropollutants, many of which have endocrine disrupting and carcinogenic properties. In the anaerobic denitrifying betaproteobacterium Denitratisoma (D.) oestradiolicum, estrogen degradation is initiated by S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)- and electron donor-dependent methylation of ring A of 17β-estradiol to dearomatized 1-dehydrotestosterone. The reaction is catalyzed by an unusual SAM/cobalamin-dependent estrogen methyltransferase (Emt), probably composed of the four subunits of EmtABCD. During estrogen degradation in D. oestradiolicum, C1 metabolism is strongly up-regulated to regenerate SAM (Jacoby et al., 2020). The aim of my project is to isolate and biochemically, kinetically and structurally characterize the SAM/cobalamin-dependent methyltransferase complex that converts estrogens to androgens. SAM analogues provided by collaborating partners within the FOR5596 will be used to define the substrate spectrum of the methyltransferase complex and to generate novel androgen steroids in bioorthogonal approaches. Finally, a whole-cell system based on D. oestradiolicum will be developed to direct C1 metabolism towards SAM regeneration.