title: tRNA-dependent cysteine biosynthetic pathway represents a strategy to increase cysteine contents by preventing it from thermal degradation: thermal adaptation of methanogenic archaea ancestor.
abstract: Although cysteine (Cys) is beneficial to stabilize protein structures, it is not prevalent in thermophiles. For instance, the Cys contents in most thermophilic archaea are only around 0.7%. However, methanogenic archaea, no matter thermophilic or not, contain relatively abundant Cys, which remains elusive for a long time. Recently, Klipcan et al. correlated this intriguing property of methanogenic archaea with their unique tRNA-dependent Cys biosynthetic pathway. But, the deep reasons underlying the correlation are ambiguous. Considering the facts that free Cys is thermally labile and the tRNA-dependent Cys biosynthesis avoids the use of free Cys, we speculate that the unique Cys biosynthetic pathway represents a strategy to increase Cys contents by preventing it from thermal degradation, which may be relevant to the thermal adaptation of methanogenic archaea ancestor.
authors: Shandong Provincial Research Center for Bioinformatic Engineering and Technique, Center for Advanced Study, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049, PR China.
authors: Ge
authors: G
authors: Qu
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Wang
authors: Ling-Ling
authors: LL
authors: Chen
authors: Shao-Song
authors: SS
authors: Qian
authors: Hong-Yu
authors: HY
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001216:Asparagine / Q000378:metabolism; D003545:Cysteine / Q000378:metabolism*; D005973:Glutamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism; D012346:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012346:RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl; D005973:Glutamine; D001216:Asparagine; D003545:Cysteine; D008697:Methane