Methanogens genes

Promoter structure is the one feature of methanogen gene organization that is conspicuously different from its bacterial counterpart. Methanogens, in common with all archaea, have complex, multi-subunit DNA-dependent RNA-polymerases (RNAP) [31,32,41,42] which recognize and bind to sequences which have very little in common with the canonical -10 and -35 promoter sequences established in bacteria (see Chapter 12... 

C. thermoaceticum contains a gene cluster encoding at least five genes in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway (130). These genes are apparently not regulated by CO. The CODH activity does increase about fourfold when methanogenic cells are exposed to CO (131). There is... 

Leuders, T., and Friedrich, M. W. (2003). Evaluation of PGR amplification bias by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of smaU-subunit rma and mcra genes by using defined template mixtures of methanogenic pure cultures and soil DNA extracts. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69, 320-326. 

Concerning the general topic of ferredoxin and redox proteins, it is important to note the existence of several of these in various methanogens. Ferredoxin has been reported in M barkeri [iQ2], M. thermophila [249,303], and Methanococcus thermolithotrophicus [304,305]. In one case, ferredoxin is required in electron transfer from carbon monoxide dehydrogenase to a membrane-bound hydrogenase in M. thermophila [306]. Another redox protein, referred to as a glutaredoxin-like protein , has been isolated from M. thermoautotrophicum [307], but has no known function. As mentioned above, MVH gene clusters contain a sequence for a polyferredoxin of unknown function. 

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