Download MendeleyCharacterization of a long overlooked copper protein from methane- and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria.
Fisher, O.S., Kenney, G.E., Ross, M.O., Ro, S.Y., Lemma, B.E., Batelu, S., Thomas, P.M., Sosnowski, V.C., DeHart, C.J., Kelleher, N.L., Stemmler, T.L., Hoffman, B.M., Rosenzweig, A.C.(2018) Nat Commun 9: 4276-4276
- PubMed: 30323281
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06681-5
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:
6CPD - PubMed Abstract:
Methane-oxidizing microbes catalyze the oxidation of the greenhouse gas methane using the copper-dependent enzyme particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO). Isolated pMMO exhibits lower activity than whole cells, however, suggesting that additional components may be required. A pMMO homolog, ammonia monooxygenase (AMO), converts ammonia to hydroxylamine in ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) which produce another potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. Here we show that PmoD, a protein encoded within many pmo operons that is homologous to the AmoD proteins encoded within AOB amo operons, forms a copper center that exhibits the features of a well-defined Cu A site using a previously unobserved ligand set derived from a cupredoxin homodimer. PmoD is critical for copper-dependent growth on methane, and genetic analyses strongly support a role directly related to pMMO and AMO. These findings identify a copper-binding protein that may represent a missing link in the function of enzymes critical to the global carbon and nitrogen cycles.
Organizational Affiliation:
Departments of Molecular Biosciences and Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, 60208, IL, USA.
