Ferredoxin reduction by hydrogen with iron functions as an evolutionary precursor of flavin-based electron bifurcation

Autotrophic theories for the origin of metabolism posit that the first cells satisfied their carbon needs from CO2 and were chemolithoautotrophs that obtained their energy and electrons from H2. The acetyl-CoA pathway of CO2 fixation is central to that view because of its antiquity: Among known CO2 fixing pathways it is the only one that is i) exergonic, ii) occurs in both bacteria and archaea, and iii) can be functionally replaced in full by single transition metal catalysts in vitro. In order to operate in cells at a pH close to 7, however, the acetyl-CoA pathway requires complex multi-enzyme systems capable of flavin-based electron bifurcation that reduce low potential ferredoxin-the physiological donor of electrons in the acetyl-CoA pathway-with electrons from H2. How can the acetyl-CoA pathway be primordial if it requires flavin-based electron bifurcation? Here, we show that native iron (Fe0), but not Ni0, Co0, Mo0, NiFe, Ni2Fe, Ni3Fe, or Fe3O4, promotes the H2-dependent reduction of aqueous Clostridium pasteurianum ferredoxin at pH 8.5 or higher within a few hours at 40 °C, providing the physiological function of flavin-based electron bifurcation, but without the help of enzymes or organic redox cofactors. H2-dependent ferredoxin reduction by iron ties primordial ferredoxin reduction and early metabolic evolution to a chemical process in the Earth's crust promoted by solid-state iron, a metal that is still deposited in serpentinizing hydrothermal vents today.

Role of geochemical protoenzymes (geozymes) in primordial metabolism: specific abiotic hydride transfer by metals to the biological redox cofactor NAD. FEBS J 2021;289:3148-3162. [PMID: 34923745 PMCID: PMC9306933 DOI: 10.1111/febs.16329]

Hydrogen gas, H₂, is generated in serpentinizing hydrothermal systems, where it has supplied electrons and energy for microbial communities since there was liquid water on Earth. In modern metabolism, H₂ is converted by hydrogenases into organically bound hydrides (H^–), for example, the cofactor NADH. It transfers hydrides among molecules, serving as an activated and biologically harnessed form of H₂. In serpentinizing systems, minerals can also bind hydrides and could, in principle, have acted as inorganic hydride donors—possibly as a geochemical protoenzyme, a ‘geozyme’— at the origin of metabolism. To test this idea, we investigated the ability of H₂ to reduce NAD⁺ in the presence of iron (Fe), cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni), metals that occur in serpentinizing systems. In the presence of H₂, all three metals specifically reduce NAD⁺ to the biologically relevant form, 1,4‐NADH, with up to 100% conversion rates within a few hours under alkaline aqueous conditions at 40 °C. Using Henry's law, the partial pressure of H₂ in our reactions corresponds to 3.6 mm, a concentration observed in many modern serpentinizing systems. While the reduction of NAD⁺ by Ni is strictly H₂‐dependent, experiments in heavy water (²H₂O) indicate that native Fe can reduce NAD⁺ both with and without H₂. The results establish a mechanistic connection between abiotic and biotic hydride donors, indicating that geochemically catalysed, H₂‐dependent NAD⁺ reduction could have preceded the hydrogenase‐dependent reaction in evolution.