Isolation of a methyl-reducing methanogen outside the Euryarchaeota

Kejia Wu, Lei Zhou, Guillaume Tahon, Laiyan Liu, Jiang Li, Jianchao Zhang, Fengfeng Zheng, Chengpeng Deng, Wenhao Han, Liping Bai, Lin Fu, Xiuzhu Dong, Chuanlun Zhang, Thijs J. G. Ettema, Diana Z. Sousa () and Lei Cheng ()
Additional contact information
Kejia Wu: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Lei Zhou: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Guillaume Tahon: Wageningen University and Research
Laiyan Liu: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Jiang Li: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Jianchao Zhang: Tianjin University
Fengfeng Zheng: Southern University of Science and Technology
Chengpeng Deng: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Wenhao Han: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Liping Bai: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Lin Fu: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Xiuzhu Dong: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chuanlun Zhang: Southern University of Science and Technology
Thijs J. G. Ettema: Wageningen University and Research
Diana Z. Sousa: Wageningen University and Research
Lei Cheng: Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs

Nature, 2024, vol. 632, issue 8027, 1124-1130

Abstract: Abstract Methanogenic archaea are main contributors to methane emissions, and have a crucial role in carbon cycling and global warming. Until recently, methanogens were confined to Euryarchaeota, but metagenomic studies revealed the presence of genes encoding the methyl coenzyme M reductase complex in other archaeal clades1–4, thereby opening up the premise that methanogenesis is taxonomically more widespread. Nevertheless, laboratory cultivation of these non-euryarchaeal methanogens was lacking to corroborate their potential methanogenic ability and physiology. Here we report the isolation of a thermophilic archaeon LWZ-6 from an oil field. This archaeon belongs to the class Methanosuratincolia (originally affiliated with ‘Candidatus Verstraetearchaeota’) in the phylum Thermoproteota. Methanosuratincola petrocarbonis LWZ-6 is a strict hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic methanogen. Although previous metagenomic studies speculated on the fermentative potential of Methanosuratincolia members, strain LWZ-6 does not ferment sugars, peptides or amino acids. Its energy metabolism is linked only to methanogenesis, with methanol and monomethylamine as electron acceptors and hydrogen as an electron donor. Comparative (meta)genome analysis confirmed that hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic methanogenesis is a widespread trait among Methanosuratincolia. Our findings confirm that the diversity of methanogens expands beyond the classical Euryarchaeota and imply the importance of hydrogen-dependent methylotrophic methanogenesis in global methane emissions and carbon cycle.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07728-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:632:y:2024:i:8027:d:10.1038_s41586-024-07728-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07728-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().