This work was supported by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation(Grant No.8042007);the National High-Tech Research and Development(863)Program of China(Grant No.2002AA601150).
A bacterial strain,ZY3,growing on sex steroid hormones as the sole source of carbon and energy was isolated from the sewage treatment plant of a prophylactic steroids factory.ZY3 degrades the 3-methoxy-17b-hydroxy-1,3...