1
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Wang Y, Chen X, Spengler K, Terberger K, Boehm M, Appel J, Barske T, Timm S, Battchikova N, Hagemann M, Gutekunst K. Pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase and low abundant ferredoxins support aerobic photomixotrophic growth in cyanobacteria. eLife 2022; 11:71339. [PMID: 35138247 PMCID: PMC8887894 DOI: 10.7554/elife.71339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2021] [Accepted: 02/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The decarboxylation of pyruvate is a central reaction in the carbon metabolism of all organisms. It is catalyzed by the pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) and the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex. Whereas PFOR reduces ferredoxin, the PDH complex utilizes NAD+. Anaerobes rely on PFOR, which was replaced during evolution by the PDH complex found in aerobes. Cyanobacteria possess both enzyme systems. Our data challenge the view that PFOR is exclusively utilized for fermentation. Instead, we show, that the cyanobacterial PFOR is stable in the presence of oxygen in vitro and is required for optimal photomixotrophic growth under aerobic and highly reducing conditions while the PDH complex is inactivated. We found that cells rely on a general shift from utilizing NAD(H)- to ferredoxin-dependent enzymes under these conditions. The utilization of ferredoxins instead of NAD(H) saves a greater share of the Gibbs-free energy, instead of wasting it as heat. This obviously simultaneously decelerates metabolic reactions as they operate closer to their thermodynamic equilibrium. It is common thought that during evolution, ferredoxins were replaced by NAD(P)H due to their higher stability in an oxidizing atmosphere. However, the utilization of NAD(P)H could also have been favored due to a higher competitiveness because of an accelerated metabolism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingying Wang
- Department of Biology, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany
| | - Xi Chen
- Department of Biology, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany
| | | | | | - Marko Boehm
- Department of Molecular Plant Physiology, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
| | - Jens Appel
- Department of Molecular Plant Physiology, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
| | - Thomas Barske
- Plant Physiology Department, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | - Stefan Timm
- Plant Physiology Department, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | | | - Martin Hagemann
- Plant Physiology Department, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | - Kirstin Gutekunst
- Department of Molecular Plant Physiology, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
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2
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Dong Y, Zhang S, Zhao L. Unraveling the Structural Development of
Peptide‐Coordinated Iron‐Sulfur
Clusters: Prebiotic Evolution and Biosynthetic Strategies. CHINESE J CHEM 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/cjoc.202100892] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yijun Dong
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
| | - Siqi Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
| | - Liang Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry Tsinghua University Beijing 100084 China
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3
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Zhao D, Bartlett S, Yung YL. Quantifying Mineral-Ligand Structural Similarities: Bridging the Geological World of Minerals with the Biological World of Enzymes. Life (Basel) 2020; 10:life10120338. [PMID: 33321803 PMCID: PMC7764262 DOI: 10.3390/life10120338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2020] [Revised: 11/15/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Metal compounds abundant on Early Earth are thought to play an important role in the origins of life. Certain iron-sulfur minerals for example, are proposed to have served as primitive metalloenzyme cofactors due to their ability to catalyze organic synthesis processes and facilitate electron transfer reactions. An inherent difficulty with studying the catalytic potential of many metal compounds is the wide range of data and parameters to consider when searching for individual minerals and ligands of interest. Detecting mineral-ligand pairs that are structurally analogous enables more relevant selections of data to study, since structural affinity is a key indicator of comparable catalytic function. However, current structure-oriented approaches tend to be subjective and localized, and do not quantify observations or compare them with other potential targets. Here, we present a mathematical approach that compares structural similarities between various minerals and ligands using molecular similarity metrics. We use an iterative substructure search in the crystal lattice, paired with benchmark structural similarity methods. This structural comparison may be considered as a first stage in a more advanced analysis tool that will include a range of chemical and physical factors when computing mineral-ligand similarity. This approach will seek relationships between the mineral and enzyme worlds, with applications to the origins of life, ecology, catalysis, and astrobiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Zhao
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; (D.Z.); (Y.L.Y.)
- Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, Massachusetts Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Stuart Bartlett
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; (D.Z.); (Y.L.Y.)
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
- Correspondence:
| | - Yuk L. Yung
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; (D.Z.); (Y.L.Y.)
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Oak Grove Dr, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011, USA
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4
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Redox Partners: Function Modulators of Bacterial P450 Enzymes. Trends Microbiol 2020; 28:445-454. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2020.02.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2019] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
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5
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Abstract
Life on Earth is driven by electron transfer reactions catalyzed by a suite of enzymes that comprise the superfamily of oxidoreductases (Enzyme Classification EC1). Most modern oxidoreductases are complex in their structure and chemistry and must have evolved from a small set of ancient folds. Ancient oxidoreductases from the Archean Eon between ca. 3.5 and 2.5 billion years ago have been long extinct, making it challenging to retrace evolution by sequence-based phylogeny or ancestral sequence reconstruction. However, three-dimensional topologies of proteins change more slowly than sequences. Using comparative structure and sequence profile-profile alignments, we quantify the similarity between proximal cofactor-binding folds and show that they are derived from a common ancestor. We discovered that two recurring folds were central to the origin of metabolism: ferredoxin and Rossmann-like folds. In turn, these two folds likely shared a common ancestor that, through duplication, recruitment, and diversification, evolved to facilitate electron transfer and catalysis at a very early stage in the origin of metabolism.
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6
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Szilagyi RK, Hanscam R, Shepard EM, McGlynn SE. Natural selection based on coordination chemistry: computational assessment of [4Fe-4S]-maquettes with non-coded amino acids. Interface Focus 2019; 9:20190071. [PMID: 31641437 DOI: 10.1098/rsfs.2019.0071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 08/27/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Cysteine is the only coded amino acid in biology that contains a thiol functional group. Deprotonated thiolate is essential for anchoring iron-sulfur ([Fe-S]) clusters, as prosthetic groups to the protein matrix. [Fe-S] metalloproteins and metalloenzymes are involved in biological electron transfer, radical chemistry, small molecule activation and signalling. These are key metabolic and regulatory processes that would likely have been present in the earliest organisms. In the context of emergence of life theories, the selection and evolution of the cysteine-specific R-CH2-SH side chain is a fascinating question to confront. We undertook a computational [4Fe-4S]-maquette modelling approach to evaluate how side chain length can influence [Fe-S] cluster binding and stability in short 7-mer and long 16-mer peptides, which contained either thioglycine, cysteine or homocysteine. Force field-based molecular dynamics simulations for [4Fe-4S] cluster nest formation were supplemented with density functional theory calculations of a ligand-exchange reaction between a preassembled cluster and the peptide. Secondary structure analysis revealed that peptides with cysteine are found with greater frequency nested to bind preformed [4Fe-4S] clusters. Additionally, the presence of the single methylene group in cysteine ligands mitigates the steric bulk, maintains the H-bonding and dipole network, and provides covalent Fe-S(thiolate) bonds that together create the optimal electronic and geometric structural conditions for [4Fe-4S] cluster binding compared to thioglycine or homocysteine ligands. Our theoretical work forms an experimentally testable hypothesis of the natural selection of cysteine through coordination chemistry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert K Szilagyi
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
| | - Rebecca Hanscam
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
| | - Eric M Shepard
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
| | - Shawn E McGlynn
- Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan.,Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA 98154, USA.,Biofunctional Catalyst Research Team, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
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7
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Radical S-adenosylmethionine maquette chemistry: Cx3Cx2C peptide coordinated redox active [4Fe–4S] clusters. J Biol Inorg Chem 2019; 24:793-807. [DOI: 10.1007/s00775-019-01708-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/14/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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8
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Kim JD, Pike DH, Tyryshkin AM, Swapna GVT, Raanan H, Montelione GT, Nanda V, Falkowski PG. Minimal Heterochiral de Novo Designed 4Fe-4S Binding Peptide Capable of Robust Electron Transfer. J Am Chem Soc 2018; 140:11210-11213. [PMID: 30141918 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b07553] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Ambidoxin is a designed, minimal dodecapeptide consisting of alternating L and D amino acids that binds a 4Fe-4S cluster through ligand-metal interactions and an extensive network of second-shell hydrogen bonds. The peptide can withstand hundreds of oxidation-reduction cycles at room temperature. Ambidoxin suggests how simple, prebiotic peptides may have achieved robust redox catalysis on the early Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Dongun Kim
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey , New Brunswick , New Jersey 08901 , United States
| | - Douglas H Pike
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine , Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States
| | - Alexei M Tyryshkin
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey , New Brunswick , New Jersey 08901 , United States
| | - G V T Swapna
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine , Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States.,Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States
| | - Hagai Raanan
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey , New Brunswick , New Jersey 08901 , United States
| | - Gaetano T Montelione
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine , Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States.,Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology , Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States
| | - Vikas Nanda
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine , Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology , Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States
| | - Paul G Falkowski
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey , New Brunswick , New Jersey 08901 , United States.,Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers , the State University of New Jersey , Piscataway , New Jersey 08854 , United States
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9
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Russell MJ. Green Rust: The Simple Organizing 'Seed' of All Life? Life (Basel) 2018; 8:E35. [PMID: 30150570 PMCID: PMC6161180 DOI: 10.3390/life8030035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2018] [Revised: 06/28/2018] [Accepted: 08/14/2018] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Korenaga and coworkers presented evidence to suggest that the Earth's mantle was dry and water filled the ocean to twice its present volume 4.3 billion years ago. Carbon dioxide was constantly exhaled during the mafic to ultramafic volcanic activity associated with magmatic plumes that produced the thick, dense, and relatively stable oceanic crust. In that setting, two distinct and major types of sub-marine hydrothermal vents were active: ~400 °C acidic springs, whose effluents bore vast quantities of iron into the ocean, and ~120 °C, highly alkaline, and reduced vents exhaling from the cooler, serpentinizing crust some distance from the heads of the plumes. When encountering the alkaline effluents, the iron from the plume head vents precipitated out, forming mounds likely surrounded by voluminous exhalative deposits similar to the banded iron formations known from the Archean. These mounds and the surrounding sediments, comprised micro or nano-crysts of the variable valence FeII/FeIII oxyhydroxide known as green rust. The precipitation of green rust, along with subsidiary iron sulfides and minor concentrations of nickel, cobalt, and molybdenum in the environment at the alkaline springs, may have established both the key bio-syntonic disequilibria and the means to properly make use of them-the elements needed to effect the essential inanimate-to-animate transitions that launched life. Specifically, in the submarine alkaline vent model for the emergence of life, it is first suggested that the redox-flexible green rust micro- and nano-crysts spontaneously precipitated to form barriers to the complete mixing of carbonic ocean and alkaline hydrothermal fluids. These barriers created and maintained steep ionic disequilibria. Second, the hydrous interlayers of green rust acted as engines that were powered by those ionic disequilibria and drove essential endergonic reactions. There, aided by sulfides and trace elements acting as catalytic promoters and electron transfer agents, nitrate could be reduced to ammonia and carbon dioxide to formate, while methane may have been oxidized to methyl and formyl groups. Acetate and higher carboxylic acids could then have been produced from these C1 molecules and aminated to amino acids, and thence oligomerized to offer peptide nests to phosphate and iron sulfides, and secreted to form primitive amyloid-bounded structures, leading conceivably to protocells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael J Russell
- Planetary Chemistry and Astrobiology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA.
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10
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Belmonte L, Mansy SS. Patterns of Ligands Coordinated to Metallocofactors Extracted from the Protein Data Bank. J Chem Inf Model 2017; 57:3162-3171. [PMID: 29116779 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.7b00468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
A new R tool is described that rapidly identifies, ranks, and clusters sequence patterns coordinated to metallocofactors. This tool, PdPDB, fills a void because, unlike currently available tools, PdPDB searches through sequences with metal coordination as the primary determinant and can identify patterns consisting of amino acids, nucleotides, and small molecule ligands at once. PdPDB was tested by analyzing structures that coordinate Fe2+/3+, [2Fe-2S], [4Fe-4S], Zn2+, and Mg2+ cofactors. PdPDB confirmed previously identified sequence motifs and revealed which residues are enriched (e.g., glycine) and are under-represented (e.g., glutamine) near ligands to metal centers. The data show the similarities and differences between different metal-binding sites. The patterns that coordinate metallocofactors vary, depending upon whether the metal ions play a structural or catalytic role, with catalytic metal centers exhibiting partial coordination by small molecule ligands. PdPDB 2.0.1 is freely available as a CRAN package.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Belmonte
- CIBIO, University of Trento , Via Sommarive 9, 38123 Povo, Italy
| | - Sheref S Mansy
- CIBIO, University of Trento , Via Sommarive 9, 38123 Povo, Italy
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11
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Pike DH, Nanda V. Empirical estimation of local dielectric constants: Toward atomistic design of collagen mimetic peptides. Biopolymers 2016; 104:360-70. [PMID: 25784456 DOI: 10.1002/bip.22644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2014] [Revised: 03/06/2015] [Accepted: 03/08/2015] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
One of the key challenges in modeling protein energetics is the treatment of solvent interactions. This is particularly important in the case of peptides, where much of the molecule is highly exposed to solvent due to its small size. In this study, we develop an empirical method for estimating the local dielectric constant based on an additive model of atomic polarizabilities. Calculated values match reported apparent dielectric constants for a series of Staphylococcus aureus nuclease mutants. Calculated constants are used to determine screening effects on Coulombic interactions and to determine solvation contributions based on a modified Generalized Born model. These terms are incorporated into the protein modeling platform protCAD, and benchmarked on a data set of collagen mimetic peptides for which experimentally determined stabilities are available. Computing local dielectric constants using atomistic protein models and the assumption of additive atomic polarizabilities is a rapid and potentially useful method for improving electrostatics and solvation calculations that can be applied in the computational design of peptides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas H Pike
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854
| | - Vikas Nanda
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854
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12
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Jelen BI, Giovannelli D, Falkowski PG. The Role of Microbial Electron Transfer in the Coevolution of the Biosphere and Geosphere. Annu Rev Microbiol 2016; 70:45-62. [PMID: 27297124 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-micro-102215-095521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
All life on Earth is dependent on biologically mediated electron transfer (i.e., redox) reactions that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Biological redox reactions originally evolved in prokaryotes and ultimately, over the first ∼2.5 billion years of Earth's history, formed a global electronic circuit. To maintain the circuit on a global scale requires that oxidants and reductants be transported; the two major planetary wires that connect global metabolism are geophysical fluids-the atmosphere and the oceans. Because all organisms exchange gases with the environment, the evolution of redox reactions has been a major force in modifying the chemistry at Earth's surface. Here we briefly review the discovery and consequences of redox reactions in microbes with a specific focus on the coevolution of life and geochemical phenomena.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin I Jelen
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901; , ,
| | - Donato Giovannelli
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901; , , .,Institute of Marine Science, National Research Council, 60125 Ancona, Italy.,Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, New Jersey 08540.,Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan 152-8550
| | - Paul G Falkowski
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901; , , .,Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08854
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13
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Scintilla S, Bonfio C, Belmonte L, Forlin M, Rossetto D, Li J, Cowan JA, Galliani A, Arnesano F, Assfalg M, Mansy SS. Duplications of an iron–sulphur tripeptide leads to the formation of a protoferredoxin. Chem Commun (Camb) 2016; 52:13456-13459. [DOI: 10.1039/c6cc07912a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Based on UV-Vis, NMR, and EPR spectroscopies and DFT and molecular dynamics calculations, a model prebiotic [2Fe–2S] tripeptide was shown to accept and donate electrons.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Jingwei Li
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- The Ohio State University
- Columbus
- USA
| | - James A. Cowan
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- The Ohio State University
- Columbus
- USA
| | - Angela Galliani
- Department of Chemistry
- University of “Bari A. Moro”
- 70125 Bari
- Italy
| | - Fabio Arnesano
- Department of Chemistry
- University of “Bari A. Moro”
- 70125 Bari
- Italy
| | - Michael Assfalg
- Department of Biotechnology
- University of Verona
- 37134 Verona
- Italy
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14
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Nanda V, Senn S, Pike DH, Rodriguez-Granillo A, Hansen WA, Khare SD, Noy D. Structural principles for computational and de novo design of 4Fe-4S metalloproteins. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-BIOENERGETICS 2015; 1857:531-538. [PMID: 26449207 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2015.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/01/2015] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Iron-sulfur centers in metalloproteins can access multiple oxidation states over a broad range of potentials, allowing them to participate in a variety of electron transfer reactions and serving as catalysts for high-energy redox processes. The nitrogenase FeMoCO cluster converts di-nitrogen to ammonia in an eight-electron transfer step. The 2(Fe4S4) containing bacterial ferredoxin is an evolutionarily ancient metalloprotein fold and is thought to be a primordial progenitor of extant oxidoreductases. Controlling chemical transformations mediated by iron-sulfur centers such as nitrogen fixation, hydrogen production as well as electron transfer reactions involved in photosynthesis are of tremendous importance for sustainable chemistry and energy production initiatives. As such, there is significant interest in the design of iron-sulfur proteins as minimal models to gain fundamental understanding of complex natural systems and as lead-molecules for industrial and energy applications. Herein, we discuss salient structural characteristics of natural iron-sulfur proteins and how they guide principles for design. Model structures of past designs are analyzed in the context of these principles and potential directions for enhanced designs are presented, and new areas of iron-sulfur protein design are proposed. This article is part of a Special issue entitled Biodesign for Bioenergetics--the design and engineering of electronic transfer cofactors, protein networks, edited by Ronald L. Koder and J.L Ross Anderson.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vikas Nanda
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, 679 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA.
| | - Stefan Senn
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, 679 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
| | - Douglas H Pike
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, 679 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
| | - Agustina Rodriguez-Granillo
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, 679 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
| | - Will A Hansen
- Department of Chemistry and the Center for Integrated Proteomics Research, Rutgers University, 174 Frelinghuysen Rd, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Sagar D Khare
- Department of Chemistry and the Center for Integrated Proteomics Research, Rutgers University, 174 Frelinghuysen Rd, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Dror Noy
- Bioenergetics and Protein Design Laboratory, Migal - Galilee Research Institute, South Industrial Zone, Kiryat Shmona 11016, Israel
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15
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Abstract
The biogeochemical cycles of H, C, N, O and S are coupled via biologically catalyzed electron transfer (redox) reactions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. In this paper I examine the evolution of the structural motifs responsible for redox reactions (the biological "transistors") across the tree of life, and the photogeochemical reactions on minerals that ultimately came to be the driving force for these biological reactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul G Falkowski
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA,
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16
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Aklujkar M, Risso C, Smith J, Beaulieu D, Dubay R, Giloteaux L, DiBurro K, Holmes D. Anaerobic degradation of aromatic amino acids by the hyperthermophilic archaeon Ferroglobus placidus. Microbiology (Reading) 2014; 160:2694-2709. [DOI: 10.1099/mic.0.083261-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Ferroglobus placidus was discovered to oxidize completely the aromatic amino acids tyrosine, phenylalanine and tryptophan when Fe(III) oxide was provided as an electron acceptor. This property had not been reported previously for a hyperthermophilic archaeon. It appeared that F. placidus follows a pathway for phenylalanine and tryptophan degradation similar to that of mesophilic nitrate-reducing bacteria, Thauera aromatica and Aromatoleum aromaticum EbN1. Phenylacetate, 4-hydroxyphenylacetate and indole-3-acetate were formed during anaerobic degradation of phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan, respectively. Candidate genes for enzymes involved in the anaerobic oxidation of phenylalanine to phenylacetate (phenylalanine transaminase, phenylpyruvate decarboxylase and phenylacetaldehyde : ferredoxin oxidoreductase) were identified in the F. placidus genome. In addition, transcription of candidate genes for the anaerobic phenylacetate degradation, benzoyl-CoA degradation and glutaryl-CoA degradation pathways was significantly upregulated in microarray and quantitative real-time-PCR studies comparing phenylacetate-grown cells with acetate-grown cells. These results suggested that the general strategies for anaerobic degradation of aromatic amino acids are highly conserved amongst bacteria and archaea living in both mesophilic and hyperthermophilic environments. They also provided insights into the diverse metabolism of Archaeoglobaceae species living in hyperthermophilic environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muktak Aklujkar
- Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA
| | - Carla Risso
- Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Jessica Smith
- Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Derek Beaulieu
- Department of Physical and Biological Sciences, Western New England University, Springfield, MA, USA
| | - Ryan Dubay
- Department of Physical and Biological Sciences, Western New England University, Springfield, MA, USA
| | - Ludovic Giloteaux
- Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Kristin DiBurro
- Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Dawn Holmes
- Department of Physical and Biological Sciences, Western New England University, Springfield, MA, USA
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17
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Evolutionary history of redox metal-binding domains across the tree of life. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014; 111:7042-7. [PMID: 24778258 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1403676111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Oxidoreductases mediate electron transfer (i.e., redox) reactions across the tree of life and ultimately facilitate the biologically driven fluxes of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur on Earth. The core enzymes responsible for these reactions are ancient, often small in size, and highly diverse in amino acid sequence, and many require specific transition metals in their active sites. Here we reconstruct the evolution of metal-binding domains in extant oxidoreductases using a flexible network approach and permissive profile alignments based on available microbial genome data. Our results suggest there were at least 10 independent origins of redox domain families. However, we also identified multiple ancient connections between Fe2S2- (adrenodoxin-like) and heme- (cytochrome c) binding domains. Our results suggest that these two iron-containing redox families had a single common ancestor that underwent duplication and divergence. The iron-containing protein family constitutes ∼50% of all metal-containing oxidoreductases and potentially catalyzed redox reactions in the Archean oceans. Heme-binding domains seem to be derived via modular evolutionary processes that ultimately form the backbone of redox reactions in both anaerobic and aerobic respiration and photosynthesis. The empirically discovered network allows us to peer into the ancient history of microbial metabolism on our planet.
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Liu J, Chakraborty S, Hosseinzadeh P, Yu Y, Tian S, Petrik I, Bhagi A, Lu Y. Metalloproteins containing cytochrome, iron-sulfur, or copper redox centers. Chem Rev 2014; 114:4366-469. [PMID: 24758379 PMCID: PMC4002152 DOI: 10.1021/cr400479b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 559] [Impact Index Per Article: 55.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2013] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jing Liu
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Saumen Chakraborty
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Parisa Hosseinzadeh
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Yang Yu
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Shiliang Tian
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Igor Petrik
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Ambika Bhagi
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
| | - Yi Lu
- Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, and Center for Biophysics
and Computational
Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
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Abstract
A number of design strategies exist for the development of novel metalloproteins. These strategies often exploit the inherent symmetry of metal coordination and local topology. Computational design of metal binding sites in flexible regions of proteins is challenging as the number of conformational degrees of freedom is significantly increased. Additionally, without pre-organization of the primary shell ligands by the protein fold, metal binding sites can rearrange according to the coordination constraints of the metal center. Examples of metal incorporation into existing folds, full fold design exploiting symmetry, and fold design in asymmetric scaffolds are presented.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avanish S Parmar
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 679 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
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20
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Senn S, Nanda V, Falkowski P, Bromberg Y. Function-based assessment of structural similarity measurements using metal co-factor orientation. Proteins 2013; 82:648-56. [PMID: 24127252 DOI: 10.1002/prot.24442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2013] [Revised: 09/17/2013] [Accepted: 09/26/2013] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Structure comparison is widely used to quantify protein relationships. Although there are several approaches to calculate structural similarity, specifying significance thresholds for similarity metrics is difficult due to the inherent likeness of common secondary structure elements. In this study, metal co-factor location is used to assess the biological relevance of structural alignments. The distance between the centroids of bound co-factors adds a chemical and function-relevant constraint to the structural superimposition of two proteins. This additional dimension can be used to define cut-off values for discriminating valid and spurious alignments in large alignment sets. The hypothesis underlying our approach is that metal coordination sites constrain structural evolution, thus revealing functional relationships between distantly related proteins. A comparison of three related nitrogenases shows the sequence and fold constraints imposed on the protein structures up to 18 Å away from the centers of their bound metal clusters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Senn
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901
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21
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Kim JD, Yee N, Nanda V, Falkowski PG. Anoxic photochemical oxidation of siderite generates molecular hydrogen and iron oxides. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2013; 110:10073-7. [PMID: 23733945 PMCID: PMC3690895 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1308958110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Photochemical reactions of minerals are underappreciated processes that can make or break chemical bonds. We report the photooxidation of siderite (FeCO3) by UV radiation to produce hydrogen gas and iron oxides via a two-photon reaction. The calculated quantum yield for the reaction suggests photooxidation of siderite would have been a significant source of molecular hydrogen for the first half of Earth's history. Further, experimental results indicate this abiotic, photochemical process may have led to the formation of iron oxides under anoxic conditions. The reaction would have continued through the Archean to at least the early phases of the Great Oxidation Event, and provided a mechanism for oxidizing the atmosphere through the loss of hydrogen to space, while simultaneously providing a key reductant for microbial metabolism. We propose that the photochemistry of Earth-abundant minerals with wide band gaps would have potentially played a critical role in shaping the biogeochemical evolution of early Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nathan Yee
- Environmental Sciences, and
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854
| | - Vikas Nanda
- Department of Biochemistry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854; and
| | - Paul G. Falkowski
- Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
- Environmental Sciences, and
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854
- Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
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22
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Kim JD, Senn S, Harel A, Jelen BI, Falkowski PG. Discovering the electronic circuit diagram of life: structural relationships among transition metal binding sites in oxidoreductases. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2013; 368:20120257. [PMID: 23754810 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Oxidoreductases play a central role in catalysing enzymatic electron-transfer reactions across the tree of life. To first order, the equilibrium thermodynamic properties of these proteins are governed by protein folds associated with specific transition metals and ligands at the active site. A global analysis of holoenzyme structures and functions suggests that there are fewer than approximately 500 fundamental oxidoreductases, which can be further clustered into 35 unique groups. These catalysts evolved in prokaryotes early in the Earth's history and are largely responsible for the emergence of non-equilibrium biogeochemical cycles on the planet's surface. Although the evolutionary history of the amino acid sequences in the oxidoreductases is very difficult to reconstruct due to gene duplication and horizontal gene transfer, the evolution of the folds in the catalytic sites can potentially be used to infer the history of these enzymes. Using a novel, yet simple analysis of the secondary structures associated with the ligands in oxidoreductases, we developed a structural phylogeny of these enzymes. The results of this 'composome' analysis suggest an early split from a basal set of a small group of proteins dominated by loop structures into two families of oxidoreductases, one dominated by α-helices and the second by β-sheets. The structural evolutionary patterns in both clades trace redox gradients and increased hydrogen bond energy in the active sites. The overall pattern suggests that the evolution of the oxidoreductases led to decreased entropy in the transition metal folds over approximately 2.5 billion years, allowing the enzymes to use increasingly oxidized substrates with high specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Dongun Kim
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
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23
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Nitschke W, McGlynn SE, Milner-White EJ, Russell MJ. On the antiquity of metalloenzymes and their substrates in bioenergetics. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-BIOENERGETICS 2013; 1827:871-81. [PMID: 23454059 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2013.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 84] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2012] [Revised: 02/15/2013] [Accepted: 02/18/2013] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Many metalloenzymes that inject and extract reducing equivalents at the beginning and the end of electron transport chains involved in chemiosmosis are suggested, through phylogenetic analysis, to have been present in the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). Their active centres are affine with the structures of minerals presumed to contribute to precipitate membranes produced on the mixing of hydrothermal solutions with the Hadean Ocean ~4 billion years ago. These mineral precipitates consist of transition element sulphides and oxides such as nickelian mackinawite ([Fe>Ni]2S2), a nickel-bearing greigite (~FeSS[Fe3NiS4]SSFe), violarite (~NiSS[Fe2Ni2S4]SSNi), a molybdenum bearing complex (~Mo(IV/VI)2Fe3S(0/2-)9) and green rust or fougerite (~[Fe(II)Fe(III)(OH)4](+)[OH](-)). They may be respectively compared with the active centres of Ni-Fe hydrogenase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH), acetyl coenzyme-A synthase (ACS), the complex iron-sulphur molybdoenzyme (CISM) superfamily and methane monooxygenase (MMO). With the look of good catalysts - a suggestion that gathers some support from prebiotic hydrothermal experimentation - and sequestered by short peptides, they could be thought of as the original building blocks of proto-enzyme active centres. This convergence of the makeup of the LUCA-metalloenzymes with mineral structure and composition of hydrothermal precipitates adds credence to the alkaline hydrothermal (chemiosmotic) theory for the emergence of life, specifically to the possibility that the first metabolic pathway - the acetyl CoA pathway - was initially driven from either end, reductively from CO2 to CO and oxidatively and reductively from CH4 through to a methane thiol group, the two entities assembled with the help of a further thiol on a violarite cluster sequestered by peptides. By contrast, the organic coenzymes were entirely a product of the first metabolic pathways. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Metals in Bioenergetics and Biomimetics Systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Nitschke
- Laboratoire de Bioénergétique et Ingénierie des Protéines, Marseille Cedex 20, France
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Branscomb E, Russell MJ. Turnstiles and bifurcators: the disequilibrium converting engines that put metabolism on the road. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-BIOENERGETICS 2012; 1827:62-78. [PMID: 23063910 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2012.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2012] [Revised: 10/02/2012] [Accepted: 10/03/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
The Submarine Hydrothermal Alkaline Spring Theory for the emergence of life holds that it is the ordered delivery of hydrogen and methane in alkaline hydrothermal solutions at a spontaneously precipitated inorganic osmotic and catalytic membrane to the carbon dioxide and other electron acceptors in the earliest acidulous cool ocean that, through these gradients, drove life into being. That such interactions between hydrothermal fuels and potential oxidants have so far not been accomplished in the lab is because some steps along the necessary metabolic pathways are endergonic and must therefore be driven by being coupled to thermodynamically larger exergonic processes. But coupling of this kind is far from automatic and it is not enough to merely sum the ΔGs of two supposedly coupled reactions and show their combined thermodynamic viability. An exergonic reaction will not drive an endergonic one unless 'forced' to do so by being tied to it mechanistically via an organized "engine" of "Free Energy Conversion" (FEC). Here we discuss the thermodynamics of FEC and advance proposals regarding the nature and roles of the FEC devices that could, in principle, have arisen spontaneously in the alkaline hydrothermal context and have forced the onset of a protometabolism. The key challenge is to divine what these initial engines of life were in physicochemical terms and as part of that, what structures provided the first "turnstile-like" mechanisms needed to couple the partner processes in free energy conversion; in particular to couple the dissipation of geochemically given gradients to, say, the reduction of CO(2) to formate and the generation of a pyrophosphate disequilibrium. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: The evolutionary aspects of bioenergetic systems.
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