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Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures

Analyses of protein structures have shown the existence of molecular channels in enzymes from Prokaryotes. Those molecular channels suggest a critical role of spatial voids in proteins, above all, in those enzymes functioning under high temperature. It is expected that these spaces within the protei...

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Autores principales: Ginsbach, Laura F., Gonzalez, Juan M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9741079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36499474
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232315149
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author Ginsbach, Laura F.
Gonzalez, Juan M.
author_facet Ginsbach, Laura F.
Gonzalez, Juan M.
author_sort Ginsbach, Laura F.
collection PubMed
description Analyses of protein structures have shown the existence of molecular channels in enzymes from Prokaryotes. Those molecular channels suggest a critical role of spatial voids in proteins, above all, in those enzymes functioning under high temperature. It is expected that these spaces within the protein structure are required to access the active site and to maximize availability and thermal stability of their substrates and cofactors. Interestingly, numerous substrates and cofactors have been reported to be highly temperature-sensitive biomolecules. Methanogens represent a singular phylogenetic group of Archaea that performs anaerobic respiration producing methane during growth. Methanogens inhabit a variety of environments including the full range of temperatures for the known living forms. Herein, we carry out a dimensional analysis of molecular tunnels in key enzymes of the methanogenic pathway from methanogenic Archaea growing optimally over a broad temperature range. We aim to determine whether the dimensions of the molecular tunnels are critical for those enzymes from thermophiles. Results showed that at increasing growth temperature the dimensions of molecular tunnels in the enzymes methyl-coenzyme M reductase and heterodisulfide reductase become increasingly restrictive and present strict limits at the highest growth temperatures, i.e., for hyperthermophilic methanogens. However, growth at lower temperature allows a wide dimensional range for the molecular spaces in these enzymes. This is in agreement with previous suggestions on a potential major role of molecular tunnels to maintain biomolecule stability and activity of some enzymes in microorganisms growing at high temperatures. These results contribute to better understand archaeal growth at high temperatures. Furthermore, an optimization of the dimensions of molecular tunnels would represent an important adaptation required to maintain the activity of key enzymes of the methanogenic pathway for those methanogens growing optimally at high temperatures.
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spelling pubmed-97410792022-12-11 Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures Ginsbach, Laura F. Gonzalez, Juan M. Int J Mol Sci Article Analyses of protein structures have shown the existence of molecular channels in enzymes from Prokaryotes. Those molecular channels suggest a critical role of spatial voids in proteins, above all, in those enzymes functioning under high temperature. It is expected that these spaces within the protein structure are required to access the active site and to maximize availability and thermal stability of their substrates and cofactors. Interestingly, numerous substrates and cofactors have been reported to be highly temperature-sensitive biomolecules. Methanogens represent a singular phylogenetic group of Archaea that performs anaerobic respiration producing methane during growth. Methanogens inhabit a variety of environments including the full range of temperatures for the known living forms. Herein, we carry out a dimensional analysis of molecular tunnels in key enzymes of the methanogenic pathway from methanogenic Archaea growing optimally over a broad temperature range. We aim to determine whether the dimensions of the molecular tunnels are critical for those enzymes from thermophiles. Results showed that at increasing growth temperature the dimensions of molecular tunnels in the enzymes methyl-coenzyme M reductase and heterodisulfide reductase become increasingly restrictive and present strict limits at the highest growth temperatures, i.e., for hyperthermophilic methanogens. However, growth at lower temperature allows a wide dimensional range for the molecular spaces in these enzymes. This is in agreement with previous suggestions on a potential major role of molecular tunnels to maintain biomolecule stability and activity of some enzymes in microorganisms growing at high temperatures. These results contribute to better understand archaeal growth at high temperatures. Furthermore, an optimization of the dimensions of molecular tunnels would represent an important adaptation required to maintain the activity of key enzymes of the methanogenic pathway for those methanogens growing optimally at high temperatures. MDPI 2022-12-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9741079/ /pubmed/36499474 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232315149 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ginsbach, Laura F.
Gonzalez, Juan M.
Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures
title Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures
title_full Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures
title_fullStr Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures
title_full_unstemmed Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures
title_short Understanding Life at High Temperatures: Relationships of Molecular Channels in Enzymes of Methanogenic Archaea and Their Growth Temperatures
title_sort understanding life at high temperatures: relationships of molecular channels in enzymes of methanogenic archaea and their growth temperatures
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9741079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36499474
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232315149
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