Methanosarcina acetivorans requires methanol:coenzyme M methyltransferases for ethane formation from ethanol.

ABSTRACT: Corrinoid-dependent enzymes either catalyze methyltransfer reactions, or they generate substrate radicals using adenosylcobalamin for subsequent rearrangement reactions. The corrinoid-dependent methyltransferases are present in all domains of life and assumed to be exclusive for methyl-groups. In Methanosarcina, however, trace ethane production from ethanol has been shown in vivo, which led to the hypothesis that corrinoid-dependent methanol-specific methyltransferases are promiscuous towards also accepting ethyl-groups. Here, we show that the conversion of ethanol to trace amounts of ethane in Methanosarcina acetivorans involves homologous reactions of the known methanol-to-methane metabolism. The methanol methyltransferase (MtaB) activates ethanol and loads the ethyl-group onto the corri

SUBMITTER: Somvanshi T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12450230 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature