The key nickel enzyme of methanogenesis catalyses the anaerobic oxidation of methane

Silvan Scheller, Meike Goenrich, Reinhard Boecher, Rudolf K. Thauer and Bernhard Jaun ()
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Silvan Scheller: Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Meike Goenrich: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
Reinhard Boecher: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
Rudolf K. Thauer: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
Bernhard Jaun: Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland

Nature, 2010, vol. 465, issue 7298, 606-608

Abstract: Sea-bed conversion of CH3 Large quantities of the potent greenhouse gas methane are converted to carbon dioxide in marine sediments by methanotrophic archaea and sulphate-reducing bacteria, thereby preventing its release into the atmosphere. The hypothesis that the reaction behind this process is 'reverse methanogenesis', with the archaeal enzyme methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR) that normally converts carbon dioxide to methane operating in the energetically unfavourable 'wrong' direction, gains support from experiments reported in this issue. Purified MCR from Methanothermobacter marburgensis is shown to convert methane into methyl-coenzyme M under equilibrium conditions at rates that are similar to those estimated for the in vivo anaerobic oxidation of methane.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09015

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