Department of Microbiology, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, UMR CNRS 6047, Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell, Paris, France; email:
Annu Rev Microbiol. 2022 Sep 8;76:727-755. doi: 10.1146/annurev-micro-041020-024935. Epub 2022 Jun 27.
Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases on Earth and holds an important place in the global carbon cycle. Archaea are the only organisms that use methanogenesis to produce energy and rely on the methyl-coenzyme M reductase complex (Mcr). Over the last decade, new results have significantly reshaped our view of the diversity of methane-related pathways in the Archaea. Many new lineages that synthesize or use methane have been identified across the whole archaeal tree, leading to a greatly expanded diversity of substrates and mechanisms. In this review, we present the state of the art of these advances and how they challenge established scenarios of the origin and evolution of methanogenesis, and we discuss the potential trajectories that may have led to this strikingly wide range of metabolisms.
甲烷是地球上最重要的温室气体之一，在全球碳循环中占有重要地位。古菌是唯一利用产甲烷作用来产生能量的生物，并且依赖于甲基辅酶 M 还原酶复合物（Mcr）。在过去的十年中，新的研究结果极大地改变了我们对古菌中与甲烷相关途径多样性的认识。在整个古菌树中，已经鉴定出许多新的能够合成或利用甲烷的谱系，从而极大地扩展了底物和机制的多样性。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了这些进展的最新情况，以及它们如何挑战产甲烷作用的起源和进化的既定情景，并讨论了可能导致这种广泛代谢途径的潜在轨迹。
