Metals and Methanotrophy.

Metals and Methanotrophy. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2018 Jan 05;: Authors: Semrau JD, DiSpirito AA, Gu W, Yoon S Abstract Aerobic methanotrophs have long been known to play a critical role in the global carbon cycle, capable of converting methane to biomass and carbon dioxide. Interestingly, these microbes exhibit great sensitivity to copper and rare earth elements, with expression of key genes involved in the central pathway of methane oxidation controlled by the availability of these metals. That is, these microbes have a "copper-switch" that controls expression of alternative methane monooxygenases and a "rare earth element-switch" that controls expression of alternative methanol dehydrogenases. Further, it has been recently shown that some methanotrophs can detoxify inorganic mercury and demethylate methylmercury. The latter finding is remarkable as the canonical organomercurial lyase does not exist in these methanotrophs, indicating that a novel mechanism is involved in methylmercury demethylation. Here we review recent findings on methanotrophic interactions with metals, with a particular focus on these "metal-switches" and the mechanisms used by methanotrophs to bind and sequester metals. PMID: 29305514 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research