Back flux during anaerobic oxidation of butane supports archaea-mediated alkanogenesis
Microbial formation and oxidation of volatile alkanes in anoxic environments significantly impacts biogeochemical cycles on Earth. The discovery of archaea oxidizing volatile alkanes via deeply branching methyl-coenzyme M reductase variants, dubbed alkyl-CoM reductases (ACR), prompted the hypothesis of archaea-catalysed alkane formation in nature (alkanogenesis). A combination of metabolic modelling, anaerobic physiology assays, and isotope labeling of Candidatus Syntrophoarchaeum archaea catalyzing the anaerobic oxidation of butane (AOB) show a back flux of CO<sub>2</sub> to butane, demonstrating reversibility of the entire AOB pathway. Back fluxes correlate with thermodynamics and kinetics of the archaeal catabolic system. AOB reversibility supports a biological formation of butane, and generally of higher volatile alkanes, helping to explain the presence of isotopically light alkanes and deeply branching ACR genes in sedimentary basins isolated from gas reservoirs.
Authors
- Hans H. Richnow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6144-4129)
- Song‐Can Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1531-9511)
- Oliver Jens Lechtenfeld (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5313-6014)
- Steffen Kümmel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8114-8116)
- Niculina Musat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9539-189X)
- Florin Musat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4240-3495)
- Alexis Gilbert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1120-3332)
- Jiaheng Ji
- M. Lund (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1543-1009)
- Sheng Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5238-3432)
Institutions
- Tokyo Institute of Technology (JP)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (DE)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Babeș-Bolyai University (RO)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-11-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53932-9
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.38
Funders
- European Commission
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Beijing Normal University
- Novo Nordisk
- Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung
- Novo Nordisk Fonden
- European Regional Development Fund
- H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions