title: Highly efficient methane biocatalysis revealed in a methanotrophic bacterium.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Washington, Box 355014, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kalyuzhnaya
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: O N
authors.initials: ON
authors.lastname: Rozova
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Smalley
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clubb
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lamb
authors.forename: G A Nagana
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Gowda
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raftery
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bringel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vuilleumier
authors.forename: D A C
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Y A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Trotsenko
authors.forename: V N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Khmelenina
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Lidstrom
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D005557:Formaldehyde / Q000378:metabolism; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism*; D008772:Methylococcaceae / Q000502:physiology*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D005557:Formaldehyde; D008697:Methane