(Eco)Physiology of methanogens of the phylum Thermoproteota
EMSL Project ID
60847
Abstract
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and its atmospheric levels contribute to regulating Earth’s climate. The majority of biological methane is generated in anoxic environments by methanogenic archaea in a strictly anaerobic process called methanogenesis. These microorganisms play a critical role in the global carbon cycle by catalyzing the final step in organic matter degradation and are of high interest for biotechnological applications including the production of methane as energy source. The isolation of methanogens into axenic cultures has been fundamental to decades of research on their physiology and biochemistry. To date, methanogenesis has exclusively been studied in lineages of the Euryarchaeota, and no methanogen from outside this superphylum has ever been cultured for experimental investigation. Over the past eight years, environmental metagenomic studies have identified genes of the methanogenesis pathway to be encoded by archaea across multiple new lineages outside the Euryarchaeota. These newly proposed groups of methanogenic archaea could have important but so far unrecognized environmental impacts but lack any experimental data; it’s all conjecture from metagenomics.
The Hatzenpichler lab has recently established two thermophilic enrichment cultures of methanogens belonging to the candidate class Verstraetearchaeota and the class Korarchaeia, which are both members of the TACK superphylum. Both cultured archaea conduct methyl-reducing hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis and encode alternative energy-conservation pathways. This is the first-time in nearly a century that methanogens from outside the Euryarchaeota have been cultured and will lead to rewriting the microbiology textbooks. It also provides us with the unique opportunity to study the biology of these archaea.
Our project will study the physiology of these methanogens both in culture and in their native habitat. We will address under which physiochemical conditions cells engage in methanogenesis vs. other energy-conserving metabolisms and study which gene products (mRNA, proteins) are expressed both in vitro and under in situ conditions.
We propose to conduct metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metabolomics experiments with the JGI as well as metaproteomics and NanoSIMS experiments with EMSL.
Project Details
Project type
FICUS Research
Start Date
2023-10-01
End Date
N/A
Status
Active
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members