Methanol transfer supports metabolic syntrophy between bacteria and archaea

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Huang, Yan; Igarashi, Kensuke; Liu, Laiyan; Mayumi, Daisuke; Ujiie, Tomomi; Fu, Lin; Yang, Min; Lu, Yahai; Cheng, Lei; Kato, Souichiro; Nobu, Masaru K.
• 署名单位: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture, CAAS; Hokkaido University; National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST); National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST); Peking University; Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science & Technology (JAMSTEC); National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST)
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-1189
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08491-w
• 发表日期: 2025-03-06
• 关键词: interspecies electron-transfer; gen. nov.; anaerobic-digestion; formate; butyrate; OIL; h-2; methanogenesis; propionate; energetics

摘要

In subsurface methanogenic ecosystems, the ubiquity of methylated-compound-using archaea-methylotrophic methanogens1, 2, 3-4-implies that methylated compounds have an important role in the ecology and carbon cycling of such habitats. However, the origin of these chemicals remains unclear5,6 as there are no known energy metabolisms that generate methylated compounds de novo as a major product. Here we identified an energy metabolism in the subsurface-derived thermophilic anaerobe Zhaonella formicivorans7 that catalyses the conversion of formate to methanol, thereby producing methanol without requiring methylated compounds as an input. Cultivation experiments showed that formate-driven methanologenesis is inhibited by the accumulation of methanol. However, this limitation can be overcome through methanol consumption by a methylotrophic partner methanogen, Methermicoccus shengliensis. This symbiosis represents a fourth mode of mutualistic cross-feeding driven by thermodynamic necessity (syntrophy), previously thought to rely on transfer of hydrogen, formate or electrons8, 9-10. The unusual metabolism and syntrophy provide insights into the enigmatic presence of methylated compounds in subsurface methanogenic ecosystems and demonstrate how organisms survive at the thermodynamic limit through metabolic symbiosis.