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    Home > Biochemistry News > Microbiology News > Science Advances | Great Discovery!

    Science Advances | Great Discovery!

    • Last Update: 2021-03-25
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    iNature methanogens are considered to be one of the earliest life forms on earth.
    Together with anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea, they have a vital impact on climate stability.

    However, the origin and evolution of anaerobic alkane metabolism in the field of archaea are still controversial.

    On February 11, 2021, Xiao Xiang and Wang Yinzheng of Shanghai Jiaotong University published a research paper entitled "A methylotrophic origin of methanogenesis and early divergence of anaerobic multicarbon alkane metabolism" in Science Advances.
    The research showed that methane production already exists in Science Advances.
    Euryarchaeota, the common ancestor of TACK archaea and Asgard archaea, is likely to appear in the late Hadean or early Archean, and the ancestral methanogens depend on methylated compounds and hydrogen.

    The methanogenesis that reduces carbon dioxide is developed by tetrahydromethylpterin S-methyltransferase, which links the methanogenesis to the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway to save energy.

    Multi-carbon alkanes metabolism in archaea also originated earlier.
    The genes encoding short-chain or even long-chain alkane activation may have evolved from the ancestors of ethane metabolism, and these genes may be transferred horizontally to multiple archaea branches.

    In summary, the results of this study indicate that methane formation and bacterial formation may have developed rapidly after the differentiation of bacteria and archaea in the late Hardy period.

    The first methanogen may be a hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic archaea.

    Therefore, methane production may have had a vital impact on the climate of the early Earth.

    The accumulated methane will cause the early greenhouse effect and retain the sun's radiation, which will increase the surface temperature of the earth and provide a suitable habitat for the evolution of other organisms.

    Methane production is one of the oldest biochemical pathways on the planet, and it also plays a key role in global climate change, because this process largely controls the formation of methane (a strong greenhouse gas).

    Methanogenesis only exists in the field of archaea, and changes in its activities may cause dramatic fluctuations in the earth's surface temperature and subsequent biological extinction events.
    For example, the methanogenesis burst at the end of the Permian may lead to material extinction.

    However, anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea (ANME) can also consume methane in anoxic conditions through the reverse methane generation pathway.

    It is estimated that in the modern ocean, anaerobic oxidation of methane removes about 80% of the methane produced during the methane production process, thus keeping the methane in the atmosphere at a low concentration and avoiding potential global warming effects.

    Both geological evidence and molecular dating indicate that methane production started very early, and it has been suggested that methanogens may represent one of the main forms of life.

    Methyl-Coenzyme M reductase (MCR) is a key enzyme in anaerobic methane metabolism, and the related alkyl-Coenzyme M reductase (ACR) catalyzes the oxidation of polycarbonate alkanes.

    Most cultivated methanogens use electron donors such as hydrogen to reduce carbon dioxide.

    These organisms contain enzymes of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway, which reduce carbon dioxide to methyl groups bound to tetrahydromethopterin.

    Anaerobic methane-oxidizing archaea (ANME) and the recently discovered anaerobic short-chain alkane-oxidizing archaea use the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway and MCR/ACR for oxidation.

     The enzyme that connects the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway to MCR is tetrahydromethopterin S-methyltransferase (MTR), which transfers methyl groups between the coenzyme tetrahydromethopterin and coenzyme M (CoM).

    However, methylmethanotrophic archaea, which are methane-dependent methanogens, have been cultivated.
    They have neither Wood-Ljungdahl pathway nor MTR, and therefore require methylated compounds and hydrogen as electron acceptors and donors, respectively. In recent years, environmental genomics has revealed many previously unknown potential methanogen lineages in archaeal species trees.

    The comparative genomics analysis of the diversity of archaea supports the following hypothesis: the last common ancestor of Euryarchaeota and TACK archaea may be methanogens.

    Some studies have shown that the first methanogens are carbon dioxide reducing agents using the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway.

    The discovery of anaerobic multi-chain alkoxylated archaea in different archaea indicates that the evolutionary history of ACR is more complicated and may involve multiple horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of ACR-encoding genes.

    To clearly clarify the origin and evolution of methanogenesis and anaerobic alkane metabolism, better genome sampling of the early differentiated members of Euryarchaeota and TACK archaea is needed, and the mcr/acr and mtr gene family origins are mapped to the archaeal species tree on.

    This study shows that methanogenesis already exists in the common ancestor of Euryarchaeota, TACK archaea and Asgard archaea, and it is likely to occur in the late Hadean or early Archean, and the ancestral methanogens depend on methylated compounds and hydrogen.

    The methanogenesis that reduces carbon dioxide is developed by tetrahydromethylpterin S-methyltransferase, which links the methanogenesis to the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway to save energy.

    Multi-carbon alkanes metabolism in archaea also originated earlier.
    The genes encoding short-chain or even long-chain alkane activation may have evolved from the ancestors of ethane metabolism, and these genes may be transferred horizontally to multiple archaea branches.

    In summary, the results of this study indicate that methane formation and bacterial formation may have developed rapidly after the differentiation of bacteria and archaea in the late Hardy period.

    The first methanogen may be a hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic archaea.

    Therefore, methane production may have had a vital impact on the climate of the early Earth.

    The accumulated methane will cause the early greenhouse effect and retain the sun's radiation, which will increase the surface temperature of the earth and provide a suitable habitat for the evolution of other organisms.

    Reference message: DOI: 10.
    1126/sciadv.
    abd7180
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