text: Many synthetic steroidic compounds like some sexual hormones frequently appear in municipal and industrial wastewaters, acting as environmental pollutants with strong metabolic activities negatively affecting the ecosystems. Since these compounds are common carbon sources for many different microorganisms their aerobic and anaerobic mineralization has been extensively studied. The interest of these studies lies on the biotechnological applications of sterol transforming enzymes for the industrial synthesis of sexual hormones and corticoids. Very recently, the catabolism of cholesterol has acquired a high relevance because it is involved in the infectivity of the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Mtb causes tuberculosis disease, and it has been demonstrated that novel enzyme architectures have evolved to bind and modify steroid compounds like cholesterol in this organism and other steroid-utilizing bacteria as well. These new enzymes might be of interest for their potential in the chemical modification of steroid substrates.