show Abstracthide AbstractGiven P1 strain important ecological role in the degrade of PAHs and with the availability of its full genome sequence, Cycloclasticus may now serve as a model organism to understand bacterial PAHs metabolism. In addition to determining the metabolic and enzymatic capabilities, a number of specific questions intrinsically linked to PAHs utilization by this important group of PAH degraders, for example how PAHs enter the cell and which transport systems may be involved, how the cells physically interact with the hydrophobic substrate, whether and how they attach to it, and which molecular mechanisms allow the cells chemotactic to PAHs, how different pathways of different PAHs are regulated.