A Structural View of Alkyl-Coenzyme M Reductases, the First Step of Alkane Anaerobic Oxidation Catalyzed by Archaea.

ABSTRACT: Microbial anaerobic oxidation of alkanes intrigues the scientific community by way of its impact on the global carbon cycle, and its biotechnological applications. Archaea are proposed to degrade short- and long-chain alkanes to CO₂ by reversing methanogenesis, a theoretically reversible process. The pathway would start with alkane activation, an endergonic step catalyzed by methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR) homologues that would generate alkyl-thiols carried by coenzyme M. While the methane-generating MCR found in methanogens has been well characterized, the enzymatic activity of the putative alkane-fixing counterparts has not been validated so far. Such an absence of biochemical investigations contrasts with the current explosion of metagenomics data, which draws new potential

SUBMITTER: Lemaire ON 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9118554 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature