Cited by 275Microbial metabolism and enzyme functionMicrobial Fuel Cells and BioremediationAnaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production

An Ancient Pathway Combining Carbon Dioxide Fixation with the Generation and Utilization of a Sodium Ion Gradient for ATP Synthesis

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Poehlein, Anja, Schmidt, Silke, Kaster, Anne-Kristin, Goenrich, Meike, Vollmers, John, Thürmer, Andrea, Bertsch, Johannes, Schuchmann, Kai +6 more·2012·PLoS ONE

Abstract

Synthesis of acetate from carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen is considered to be the first carbon assimilation pathway on earth. It combines carbon dioxide fixation into acetyl-CoA with the production of ATP via an energized cell membrane. How the pathway is coupled with the net synthesis of ATP has been an enigma. The anaerobic, acetogenic bacterium Acetobacterium woodii uses an ancient version of this pathway without cytochromes and quinones. It generates a sodium ion potential across the cell membrane by the sodium-motive ferredoxin:NAD oxidoreductase (Rnf). The genome sequence of A. woodii solves the enigma: it uncovers Rnf as the only ion-motive enzyme coupled to the pathway and unravels a metabolism designed to produce reduced ferredoxin and overcome energetic barriers by virtue of electron-bifurcating, soluble enzymes.

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Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0033439

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  • Acetogens that lack cytochromes use their version of the WL-pathway to make methyl-H4F, as for Acetobacterium woodii.

    “Acetogens that lack cytochromes use their version of the WL-pathway to make methyl-H4F, as sketched in figure 3b, which is modified from Pohlein et al. [146] and Buckel & Thauer [143] for Acetobacterium woodii.”

    From Early bioenergetic evolution (2013) · cites this paper as [146]

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [24]Verhagen MFJM O'Rourke T Adams MWW 1999 The hyperthermophilic bacterium, Thermotoga maritima, contains an unusually complex iron-hydrogenase: amino acid sequence analyses versus biochemical characterization. Biochim Biophys Acta 1412 212 229 10482784
  2. [25]Fuli L Hinderberger J Seedorf H Zhang J Buckel W 2008 Coupled ferredoxin and crotonyl coenzyme A (CoA) reduction with NADH catalyzed by the butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase/Etf complex from Clostridium klyuveri. J Bacteriol 190 843 850 17993531 PMC2223550
  3. [42]Büttner K Bernhardt J Scharf C Schmid R Mader U 2001 A comprehensive two-dimensional map of cytosolic proteins of Bacillus subtilis. Electrophoresis 22 2908 2935 11565787

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Authors
Poehlein, A., Schmidt, S., Kaster, A.-K., Goenrich, M., Vollmers, J., Thürmer, A., Bertsch, J., Schuchmann, K., Voigt, B., Hecker, M., Daniel, R., Thauer, R. K., Gottschalk, G., & Müller, V.
Affiliations
  • University of Göttingen (DE)
  • Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
  • Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (DE)
  • Universität Greifswald (DE)
Corresponding author
Müller, Volker
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2012-03-29
Volume
7
Issue
3
Pages
e33439
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2091506898
Cited by
274
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 16
FWCI
11.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • GoeScholar The Publication Server of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Publication Server of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Goethe University Frankfurt) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial metabolism and enzyme function
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Microbial Fuel Cells and Bioremediation
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production
Keywords
acetate production, CO2 fixation, molecular hydrogen, Acetobacterium woodii, acetogenesis, ATP production, electron bifurcation, ferredoxin, acetyl-CoA, membrane potential, genome sequence
MeSH terms
Acetyl Coenzyme A, Adenosine Triphosphate, Bacterial Proteins, Carbon Dioxide, Cell Membrane, Energy Metabolism, Ferredoxins, Models, Biological, Oxidation-Reduction, Oxidoreductases, Sodium, Genome, Bacterial, Acetobacterium, Biosynthetic Pathways, Carbon Cycle

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