A RuBisCO-mediated carbon metabolic pathway in methanogenic archaea.

ABSTRACT: Two enzymes are considered to be unique to the photosynthetic Calvin-Benson cycle: ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO), responsible for CO₂ fixation, and phosphoribulokinase (PRK). Some archaea possess bona fide RuBisCOs, despite not being photosynthetic organisms, but are thought to lack PRK. Here we demonstrate the existence in methanogenic archaea of a carbon metabolic pathway involving RuBisCO and PRK, which we term 'reductive hexulose-phosphate' (RHP) pathway. These archaea possess both RuBisCO and a catalytically active PRK whose crystal structure resembles that of photosynthetic bacterial PRK. Capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometric analysis of metabolites reveals that the RHP pathway, which differs from the Calvin-Benson cycle only in a few ste

SUBMITTER: Kono T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5241800 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature