Bark biodegradation is a phenomenon that happens in nature, but virtually nothing is known about it, this is what happens to the material, which are the microorganisms involved and which enzymes they use. However, our group has recently characterized spruce bark biodegradation over time, both chemically and biologically [1]. During this experiment, sterile spruce bark was inoculated with an actively growing inoculum containing bark naturally occurring species, and then monitored and sampled over time. This study showed the key stages during spruce bark degradation and also led to the discovery of a new species able to grow on toxic compounds known as resin acids. Spruce bark is particularly rich in extractives (about 20% of total bark mass), and resin acids are an important group of compounds within them. These are insoluble, recalcitrant, and toxic molecules that serve as antimicrobial agents that protect the tree against pathogens in its first layer of defense, the bark. It has been shown that resin acids had to be detoxified by specialist bacterial species before the microbial consortium in it could diversify. These resin acids were metabolized by a specialist newly discovered bacterium named Pseudomonas abieticivorans. This bacterium was found to encode a complete dit gene cluster, a cluster known to be responsible for the initial degradation of abietane-type resin acids. Despite there have been some studies on resin acid metabolism [2], only a few enzymes from it have been poorly studied. The aim of this research project is then to study the dit gene cluster by characterizing the enzymes involved in the (hypothetical) first steps of abietane-type resin acids. This would open an opportunity to valorize bark extractive fractions, by understanding how resin acids are metabolized with these enzymes, it would be possible to rationally modify resin acids into fine chemicals with pharmaceutical properties.