Recently, Yanzhao Wang, the executive member of ICDLI,  published the minireview titled "Methyl/alkyl‐coenzyme M reductase‐based anaerobic alkane oxidation in archaea" in Environmental Microbiology. The correspondence author is Fengping Wang.

Methyl‐coenzyme M reductase (MCR) has been originally identified to catalyse the final step of the methanogenesis pathway. About 20 years ago anaerobic methane‐oxidizing archaea (ANME) were discovered that use MCR enzymes to activate methane. ANME thrive at the thermodynamic limit of life, are slow‐growing, and in most cases form syntrophic consortia with sulfate‐reducing bacteria. Recently, archaea that have the ability to anaerobically oxidize non‐methane multi‐carbon alkanes such as ethane and n‐butane were described in both enrichment cultures and environmental samples. These anaerobic multi‐carbon alkane‐oxidizing archaea (ANKA) use enzymes homologous to MCR named alkyl‐coenzyme M reductase (ACR).

In the paper, the team reviewed the recent progresses on the diversity, distribution and functioning of both ANME and ANKA by presenting a detailed MCR/ACR‐based phylogeny, compare their metabolic pathways and discuss the gaps in our knowledge of physiology of these organisms. To improve the understanding of alkane oxidation in archaea, they identified three directions for future research: (i) expanding cultivation attempts to validate omics‐based metabolic models of yet‐uncultured organisms, (ii) performing biochemical and structural analyses of key enzymes to understand thermodynamic and steric constraints and (iii) investigating the evolution of anaerobic alkane metabolisms and their impact on biogeochemical cycles.

McrA/AcrA phylogenetic tree

This work was supported by the State Key R&D Project of China (grant number 2018YFC0310800, 2016YFA0601102), COMRA Project DY135‐B2‐12, the National Nature Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 41525011, 41902313, 91751205), the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering Foundation (grant number GKZD010075), and the DFG Cluster of Excellence 2077 'The Ocean Floor—Earth's Uncharted Interface' at MARUM, University of Bremen. This is a contribution to the International Center for Deep‐Life Investigation (IC‐DLI).

Publication link:

https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1462-2920.15057