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Rucker HR, Kaçar B. Enigmatic evolution of microbial nitrogen fixation: insights from Earth's past. Trends Microbiol 2024; 32:554-564. [PMID: 37061455 DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2023.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Revised: 03/16/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 04/17/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of nitrogen fixation undoubtedly altered nearly all corners of the biosphere, given the essential role of nitrogen in the synthesis of biomass. To date, there is no unified view on what planetary conditions gave rise to nitrogen fixation or how these conditions have sustained it evolutionarily. Intriguingly, the concentrations of metals that nitrogenases require to function have changed throughout Earth's history. In this review, we describe the interconnection of the metal and nitrogen cycles with nitrogenase evolution and the importance of ancient ecology in the formation of the modern nitrogen cycle. We argue that exploration of the nitrogen cycle's deep past will provide insights into humanity's immediate environmental challenges centered on nitrogen availability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holly R Rucker
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Betül Kaçar
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.
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Timm J, Pike DH, Mancini JA, Tyryshkin AM, Poudel S, Siess JA, Molinaro PM, McCann JJ, Waldie KM, Koder RL, Falkowski PG, Nanda V. Design of a minimal di-nickel hydrogenase peptide. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eabq1990. [PMID: 36897954 PMCID: PMC10005181 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq1990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Ancestral metabolic processes involve the reversible oxidation of molecular hydrogen by hydrogenase. Extant hydrogenase enzymes are complex, comprising hundreds of amino acids and multiple cofactors. We designed a 13-amino acid nickel-binding peptide capable of robustly producing molecular hydrogen from protons under a wide variety of conditions. The peptide forms a di-nickel cluster structurally analogous to a Ni-Fe cluster in [NiFe] hydrogenase and the Ni-Ni cluster in acetyl-CoA synthase, two ancient, extant proteins central to metabolism. These experimental results demonstrate that modern enzymes, despite their enormous complexity, likely evolved from simple peptide precursors on early Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Timm
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Douglas H. Pike
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Joshua A. Mancini
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Alexei M. Tyryshkin
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Saroj Poudel
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Jan A. Siess
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Paul M. Molinaro
- Department of Physics, The City College of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - James J. McCann
- Department of Physics, The City College of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Kate M. Waldie
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - Ronald L. Koder
- Department of Physics, The City College of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Paul G. Falkowski
- Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
| | - Vikas Nanda
- Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
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Catalysis before Enzymes: Thiol-Rich Peptides as Molecular Diversity Providers on the Early Earth. DIVERSITY 2023. [DOI: 10.3390/d15020256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
The multiplicity of simple molecules available on the primitive Earth probably made possible the development of extremely diverse prebiotic chemistry. The importance of thiols is widely recognized in the community studying the origin of life. De Duve’s “thioester world” has been considered a major contribution in this regard, where thioester bonds have high energies and thus can contribute to several chemical reactions. Herein, we propose specific models of thiols that exhibit unique activities toward several chemical reactions. Thanks to aminothiol and aminonitrile behaviors, we were able to obtain thiol-rich peptides with interesting catalytic activities leading to the formation of structurally diverse molecules. In a broader context, such chemistry could be introduced into systems chemistry scenarios in which it would be associated with the chemistry of nucleic acids or their precursors, as well as that of fatty acids.
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Abstract
Ferric heme b (= ferric protoporphyrin IX = hemin) is an important prosthetic group of different types of enzymes, including the intensively investigated and widely applied horseradish peroxidase (HRP). In HRP, hemin is present in monomeric form in a hydrophobic pocket containing among other amino acid side chains the two imidazoyl groups of His170 and His42. Both amino acids are important for the peroxidase activity of HRP as an axial ligand of hemin (proximal His170) and as an acid/base catalyst (distal His42). A key feature of the peroxidase mechanism of HRP is the initial formation of compound I under heterolytic cleavage of added hydrogen peroxide as a terminal oxidant. Investigations of free hemin dispersed in aqueous solution showed that different types of hemin dimers can form, depending on the experimental conditions, possibly resulting in hemin crystallization. Although it has been recognized already in the 1970s that hemin aggregation can be prevented in aqueous solution by using micelle-forming amphiphiles, it remains a challenge to prepare hemin-containing micellar and vesicular systems with peroxidase-like activities. Such systems are of interest as cheap HRP-mimicking catalysts for analytical and synthetic applications. Some of the key concepts on which research in this fascinating and interdisciplinary field is based are summarized, along with major accomplishments and possible directions for further improvement. A systematic analysis of the physico-chemical properties of hemin in aqueous micellar solutions and vesicular dispersions must be combined with a reliable evaluation of its catalytic activity. Future studies should show how well the molecular complexity around hemin in HRP can be mimicked by using micelles or vesicles. Because of the importance of heme b in virtually all biological systems and the fact that porphyrins and hemes can be obtained under potentially prebiotic conditions, ideas exist about the possible role of heme-containing micellar and vesicular systems in prebiotic times.
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Valer L, Rossetto D, Parkkila T, Sebastianelli L, Guella G, Hendricks AL, Cowan JA, Sang L, Mansy SS. Histidine Ligated Iron-Sulfur Peptides. Chembiochem 2022; 23:e202200202. [PMID: 35674331 PMCID: PMC9400863 DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202200202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2022] [Revised: 06/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Iron-sulfur clusters are thought to be ancient cofactors that could have played a role in early protometabolic systems. Thus far, redox active, prebiotically plausible iron-sulfur clusters have always contained cysteine ligands to the cluster. However, extant iron-sulfur proteins can be found to exploit other modes of binding, including ligation by histidine residues, as seen with [2Fe-2S] Rieske and MitoNEET proteins. Here, we investigated the ability of cysteine- and histidine-containing peptides to coordinate a mononuclear Fe2+ center and a [2Fe-2S] cluster and compare their properties with purified iron-sulfur proteins. The iron-sulfur peptides were characterized by UV-vis, circular dichroism, and paramagnetic NMR spectroscopies and cyclic voltammetry. Small (≤6 amino acids) peptides can coordinate [2Fe-2S] clusters through a combination of cysteine and histidine residues with similar reduction potentials as their corresponding proteins. Such complexes may have been important for early cell-like systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luca Valer
- D-CIBIOUniversity of Trentovia Sommarive 938123Trento 28123Italy
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of Alberta11227 Saskatchewan DriveEdmontonT6G 2G2AlbertaCanada
| | - Daniele Rossetto
- D-CIBIOUniversity of Trentovia Sommarive 938123Trento 28123Italy
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of Alberta11227 Saskatchewan DriveEdmontonT6G 2G2AlbertaCanada
| | - Taylor Parkkila
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of Alberta11227 Saskatchewan DriveEdmontonT6G 2G2AlbertaCanada
| | - Lorenzo Sebastianelli
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of Alberta11227 Saskatchewan DriveEdmontonT6G 2G2AlbertaCanada
| | - Graziano Guella
- Department of PhysicsUniversity of TrentoVia Sommarive 14Trento38123Italy
| | - Amber L. Hendricks
- Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryThe Ohio State University100 West 18th AveColumbusOH 43210USA
| | - James A. Cowan
- Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryThe Ohio State University100 West 18th AveColumbusOH 43210USA
| | - Lingzi Sang
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of Alberta11227 Saskatchewan DriveEdmontonT6G 2G2AlbertaCanada
| | - Sheref S. Mansy
- D-CIBIOUniversity of Trentovia Sommarive 938123Trento 28123Italy
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of Alberta11227 Saskatchewan DriveEdmontonT6G 2G2AlbertaCanada
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