Methanogens discovery

F430, a yellow, water-soluble compound, was first extracted from boiled cells of methanogenic bacteria, a discovery which Wolfe (19) has credited to J. LeGall. Its isolation was first reported by Gunsalus and Wolfe (83). The cofactor has a Soret band in the visible region at 430 nm. Functionally F430 is a prosthetic group of the methylreductase system (24, 84). It is also found in the free state in cell extracts (85). 

Work described before discovery of two MR isozymes in some methanogens, and which may reflect a mixture of isozymes. 

Elucidation of the structure of component B (HSHTP) and the discovery of heterodisulfide reductase are two recent successes in work on the biochemistry of methanogens [131,174,178,197,423]. The enzyme heterodisulfide reductase (HR) carries out Reaction (22), regenerating CoM and HSHTP [131,174,423]. HR is found in all methanogens examined [55], and has been proposed to be involved in energy conservation. Two approaches have been used to study this enzyme characterization of the purified enzyme, and studies with membranes and everted vesicles. 

Since its discovery around the mid-1960s, a variety of interspecies H2 transfer reactions have been elucidated. Early studies focused primarily on processes involving methanogenic bacteria because this association was the first described. The small amount of energy available in methanogenic metabolism efiectively forces the bacteria into symbiotic relationships that neither partner can function without (Schink, 1997). Although... 

Forbes, A.J. Patrie, S.M. Taylor, G.K. Kim, Y.B. Jiang, L.H. Kelleher, N.L. Targeted analysis and discovery of posttranslational modifications in proteins from methanogenic archaea by top-down MS. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2004,101, 2678-2683. 

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