Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Environ Microbiol. 2011 Oct;13(10):2603-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2011.02464.x. Epub 2011 Mar 28.
Methylotrophy is a metabolic capability possessed by microorganisms that allows them to build biomass and to obtain energy from organic substrates containing no carbon-carbon bonds (C1 compounds, such as methane, methanol, etc.). This phenomenon in microbial physiology has been a subject of study for over 100 years, elucidating a set of well-defined enzymatic systems and pathways enabling this capability. The knowledge gained from the early genetic and genomic approaches to understanding methylotrophy pointed towards the existence of alternative enzymes/pathways for the specific metabolic goals. Different combinations of these systems in different organisms suggested that methylotrophy must be modular in its nature. More recent insights from genomic analyses, including the genomes representing novel types of methylotrophs, seem to reinforce this notion. This review integrates the new findings with the previously developed concept of modularity of methylotrophy.
甲醇营养型是一种微生物所具有的代谢能力，使它们能够利用不含碳-碳键的有机基质（C1 化合物，如甲烷、甲醇等）来构建生物量并获取能量。在微生物生理学中，这一现象已经研究了 100 多年，阐明了一系列明确的酶系统和途径，使这种能力成为可能。从早期的遗传和基因组方法来理解甲醇营养型的知识表明，存在用于特定代谢目标的替代酶/途径。不同生物体中这些系统的不同组合表明，甲醇营养型在本质上必须是模块化的。最近从基因组分析中获得的新见解，包括代表新型甲醇营养型的基因组，似乎进一步证实了这一观点。本综述将新发现与先前开发的甲醇营养型模块化概念相结合。
