Abstract
Massive amounts of methane are produced on Earth. Methane is useful as an energy source and as an energy storage material for H2. However, there is increasing concern about methane concentrations in the atmosphere because it is a potent greenhouse gas. Methane is biologically produced primarily by methanogenic archaea, most of which produce methane hydrogenotrophically from H2 and CO2. Many enzymes involved in the hydrogenotrophic methanogenic pathway are shared in the methanogenic pathway from C1 compounds or acetate. The methanogenic pathways contain unique enzymes and their prosthetic groups using unique electron and C1 carriers. Here, we describe an overview of the hydrogenotrophic methanogenic pathway, including the energy conservation and energy-coupling systems. The catalytic functions and mechanisms of the methanogenic enzymes are discussed based on their crystal structures.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. Dr. Rolf Thauer for his helpful suggestions. This work was supported by a grant from the Max Planck Society, Deutsch Forschungsgemeinschaft Priority Programme “Iron-Sulfur for Life” (SH87/1-1) to S.S.
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Wagner, T., Watanabe, T., Shima, S. (2019). Hydrogenotrophic Methanogenesis. In: Stams, A., Sousa, D. (eds) Biogenesis of Hydrocarbons. Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78108-2_3
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