Best of the Journals: Highly efficient methane biocatalysis revealed in a methanotrophic bacterium
Authors: M. G. Kalyuzhnaya, S. Yang, O. N. Rozova, N. E. Smalley, J. Clubb, A. Lamb, G. A. Nagana Gowda, D. Raftery, Y. Fu, F. Bringel, S. Vuilleumier, D. A. C. Beck, Y. A. Trotsenko, V. N. Khmelenina & M. E. Lidstrom
Abstract: 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.
Category: Research
