Oxalate-degrading Enterococcus faecalis

An oxalate-degrading Enterococcus faecalis was isolated from human stools under anaerobic conditions, The bacteria required a poor nutritional environment and repeated subculturing to maintain their oxalate-degrading ability, The E. faecalis produced 3 proteins (65, 48, and 40 kDa) that were not produced by non-oxalate-degrading E. faecalis as examined by SDS-PAGE, Antibodies against oxalyl-coenzyme A decarboxylase (65 kDa) and formyl-coenzyme A transferase (48 kDa) obtained from Oxalobacter formigenes tan oxalate-degrading anaerobic bacterium in the human intestine) reacted with 2 of the proteins (65 and 48 kDa) from the E. faecalis as examined by Western blottings, This is the first report on the isolation of oxalate-degrading facultative anaerobic bacteria from humans.