The DOI matches its Crossref record; 36 of the 36 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Protein complexing in a methanogen suggests electron bifurcation and electron delivery from formate to heterodisulfide reductase
Open accessAbstract
In methanogenic Archaea, the final step of methanogenesis generates methane and a heterodisulfide of coenzyme M and coenzyme B (CoM-S-S-CoB). Reduction of this heterodisulfide by heterodisulfide reductase to regenerate HS-CoM and HS-CoB is an exergonic process. Thauer et al. [Thauer, et al. 2008 Nat Rev Microbiol 6:579–591] recently suggested that in hydrogenotrophic methanogens the energy of heterodisulfide reduction powers the most endergonic reaction in the pathway, catalyzed by the formylmethanofuran dehydrogenase, via flavin-based electron bifurcation. Here we present evidence that these two steps in methanogenesis are physically linked. We identify a protein complex from the hydrogenotrophic methanogen, Methanococcus maripaludis , that contains heterodisulfide reductase, formylmethanofuran dehydrogenase, F 420 -nonreducing hydrogenase, and formate dehydrogenase. In addition to establishing a physical basis for the electron-bifurcation model of energy conservation, the composition of the complex also suggests that either H 2 or formate (two alternative electron donors for methanogenesis) can donate electrons to the heterodisulfide-H 2 via F 420 -nonreducing hydrogenase or formate via formate dehydrogenase. Electron flow from formate to the heterodisulfide rather than the use of H 2 as an intermediate represents a previously unknown path of electron flow in methanogenesis. We further tested whether this path occurs by constructing a mutant lacking F 420 -nonreducing hydrogenase. The mutant displayed growth equal to wild-type with formate but markedly slower growth with hydrogen. The results support the model of electron bifurcation and suggest that formate, like H 2 , is closely integrated into the methanogenic pathway.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Although organisms have not yet been cultivated from hydrothermal vents that exhibit growth on formate, acetogens (Moon et al., 2021) and methanogens (Ferry et al., 1974) are known that use formate as their sole carbon and electron source, and some methanogens use formate as their sole carbon source (Costa et al., 2010; Lie et al., 2012).”
From Serpentinization as the source of energy, electrons, organics, catalysts, nutrients and pH gradients for the origin of LUCA and life (2023) · cites this paper as Costa et al., 2010
Citations
Cites
Eng, J. K., McCormack, A. L., & Yates, J. R. (1994) · Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry · doi:10.1016/1044-0305(94)80016-2 · Cited by 6,484
A Model for Random Sampling and Estimation of Relative Protein Abundance in Shotgun Proteomics
Liu, H., Sadygov, R. G., & Yates, J. R. (2004) · Analytical Chemistry · doi:10.1021/ac0498563 · Cited by 2,534
Methanogenic archaea: ecologically relevant differences in energy conservation
Thauer, R. K., Kaster, A.-K., Seedorf, H., Buckel, W., & Hedderich, R. (2008) · Nature Reviews Microbiology · doi:10.1038/nrmicro1931 · Cited by 2,184
Tabb, D. L., McDonald, W. H., & Yates, J. R. (2002) · Journal of Proteome Research · doi:10.1021/pr015504q · Cited by 1,369
Hydrogenases from Methanogenic Archaea, Nickel, a Novel Cofactor, and H2 Storage
Thauer, R. K., Kaster, A., Goenrich, M., Schick, M. B., Hiromoto, T., & Shima, S. (2010) · Annual Review of Biochemistry · doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.030508.152103 · Cited by 432
Zybailov, B. L., Coleman, M. K., Florens, L. A., & Washburn, M. P. (2005) · Analytical Chemistry · doi:10.1021/ac050846r · Cited by 349
Wasserfallen, A., Nölling, J., Pfister, P., Reeve, J. N., & de Macario, E. C. (2000) · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY · doi:10.1099/00207713-50-1-43 · Cited by 233
Novel biochemistry of methanogenesis.
Rouvière, P. E., & WOLFE, R. S. (1988) · Journal of Biological Chemistry · doi:10.1016/s0021-9258(18)68417-0 · Cited by 227
Hendrickson, E. L., Kaul, R., Zhou, Y., Bovee, D., Chapman, P., Chung, J., de Macario, E. C., Dodsworth, J. A., Gillett, W., Graham, D. E., et al. (2004) · Journal of Bacteriology · doi:10.1128/jb.186.20.6956-6969.2004 · Cited by 224
Self-citationChanges in the Protein Expression of Yeast as a Function of Carbon Source
Gao, J., Opiteck, G. J., Friedrichs, M. S., Dongré, A. R., & Hefta, S. A. (2003) · Journal of Proteome Research · doi:10.1021/pr034038x · Cited by 186
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–203 of 203
Isocyanides as a Chemical Tool for Identifying [Fe]‐Hydrogenase‐Dependent Methanogenesis
Nomura, S., & Shima, S. (2026) · ChemBioChem · doi:10.1002/cbic.70535
Diversity of electron-bifurcating CO 2 -fixing supercomplexes in methanogens
Segundo‐Acosta, P. S., Nomura, S., Fernandes‐Queiroz, J. P., Protasov, E. S., Kahnt, J., Kaneko, M., Hochberg, G. K. A., Shima, S., & Murphy, B. J. (2026) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aed3711
Zhang, Y., Zhang, D., 盛翊智, Chen, H., Li, G., & Dong, H. (2026) · Frontiers in Microbiology · doi:10.3389/fmicb.2026.1967823
Metadata
- Authors
- Costa, K. C., Wong, P. M., Wang, T., Lie, T. J., Dodsworth, J. A., Swanson, I., Burn, J. A., Hackett, M., & Leigh, J. A.
- Affiliations
- U.S. National Science Foundation (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2010-06
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 24
- Pages
- 11050-11055
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2890747
- OpenAlex
- W2084094775
- Cited by
- 203
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 33.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0504219)
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE‐FG02‐, DEFG0205ER15709, FG02-05ER15709)
- University of Washington
- Division of Graduate Education
- Basic Energy Sciences (DE-FG02)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Metalloenzymes and iron-sulfur proteins
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial metabolism and enzyme function
- Keywords
- methanogenesis, electron bifurcation, heterodisulfide reductase, formate dehydrogenase, protein complexes, Methanococcus maripaludis, hydrogenotrophic methanogens, electron flow, coenzyme M, coenzyme B, energy conservation, hydrogen as electron donor
- MeSH terms
- Alcohol Oxidoreductases, Aldehyde Oxidoreductases, Base Sequence, Electron Transport, Formate Dehydrogenases, Formates, Models, Biological, Multienzyme Complexes, Oxidoreductases, Methanococcus, DNA Primers, Archaeal Proteins, Multiprotein Complexes
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
