Highly efficient methane biocatalysis revealed in a methanotrophic bacterium

Methane is an essential component of the global carbon cycle and one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, yet it is also a promising alternative source of carbon for the biological production of value-added chemicals. Aerobic methane-consuming bacteria (methanotrophs) represent a potential biologi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2013-12, Vol.4 (1), p.2785-2785, Article 2785
Main Authors: Kalyuzhnaya, M G, Yang, S, Rozova, O N, Smalley, N E, Clubb, J, Lamb, A, Gowda, G A Nagana, Raftery, D, Fu, Y, Bringel, F, Vuilleumier, S, Beck, D A C, Trotsenko, Y A, Khmelenina, V N, Lidstrom, M E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Catalysis
Formaldehyde - metabolism
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial - physiology
Genome, Bacterial
Methane - metabolism
Methylococcaceae - physiology
Oxidation-Reduction
Transcriptome
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Summary:Methane is an essential component of the global carbon cycle and one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, yet it is also a promising alternative source of carbon for the biological production of value-added chemicals. Aerobic methane-consuming bacteria (methanotrophs) represent a potential biological platform for methane-based biocatalysis. Here we use a multi-pronged systems-level approach to reassess the metabolic functions for methane utilization in a promising bacterial biocatalyst. We demonstrate that methane assimilation is coupled with a highly efficient pyrophosphate-mediated glycolytic pathway, which under oxygen limitation participates in a novel form of fermentation-based methanotrophy. This surprising discovery suggests a novel mode of methane utilization in oxygen-limited environments, and opens new opportunities for a modular approach towards producing a variety of excreted chemical products using methane as a feedstock.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms3785