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Title: Hydrogen-based metabolism as an ancestral trait in lineages sibling to the Cyanobacteria

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [1]; ORCiD logo [6];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [7]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [8]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Walnut Creek, CA (United States)
  3. Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Migal Galilee Research Institute, Kiryat Shmona (Israel); Tel Hai College, Upper Galilee (Israel)
  5. Univ. College London (United Kingdom)
  6. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Tokai (Japan); Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Horonobe (Japan)
  7. Bigelow Lab. for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME (United States)
  8. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Innovative Genomics Institute, Berkley, CA (United States)

The evolution of aerobic respiration was likely linked to the origins of oxygenic Cyanobacteria. Close phylogenetic neighbors to Cyanobacteria, such as Margulisbacteria (RBX-1 and ZB3), Saganbacteria (WOR-1), Melainabacteria and Sericytochromatia, may constrain the metabolic platform in which aerobic respiration arose. Here, we analyze genomic sequences and predict that sediment-associated Margulisbacteria have a fermentation-based metabolism featuring a variety of hydrogenases, a streamlined nitrogenase, and electron bifurcating complexes involved in cycling of reducing equivalents. The genomes of ocean-associated Margulisbacteria encode an electron transport chain that may support aerobic growth. Some Saganbacteria genomes encode various hydrogenases, and others may be able to use O2 under certain conditions via a putative novel type of heme copper O2 reductase. Similarly, Melainabacteria have diverse energy metabolisms and are capable of fermentation and aerobic or anaerobic respiration. The ancestor of all these groups may have been an anaerobe in which fermentation and H2 metabolism were central metabolic features. The ability to use O2 as a terminal electron acceptor must have been subsequently acquired by these lineages.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1546638
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 10; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Two intracellular and cell type-specific bacterial symbionts in the placozoan Trichoplax H2 journal June 2019
What's in a name? The case of cyanobacteria journal November 2019
The rise of diversity in metabolic platforms across the Candidate Phyla Radiation journal June 2020
Taxon Abstract for the Domain Archaea dataset January 1990