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An Ancient Pathway Combining Carbon Dioxide Fixation with the Generation and Utilization of a Sodium Ion Gradient for ATP Synthesis
Open accessAbstract
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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“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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Metadata
- 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
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2012-03-29
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e33439
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3315566
- 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
- gold
- doi.org
- 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 › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › 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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