Life with CO or CO2 and H2 as a source of carbon and energy

@article{Wood1991LifeWC,
  title={Life with CO or CO2 and H2 as a source of carbon and energy},
  author={Harland Goff Wood},
  journal={The FASEB Journal},
  year={1991},
  volume={5},
  pages={156 - 163},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:45967404}
}
An account is presented of the recent discovery of a pathway of growth by bacteria in which CO or CO2 and H2 are sources of carbon and energy and the acetyl CoA pathway plays a significant role in the carbon cycle.
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170 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
8
Background Citations
52
Methods Citations
10

170 Citations

Microbial growth on carbon monoxide

The utilization of carbon monoxide as energy and/or carbon source by different physiological groups of bacteria is described and compared and the little information available on the nutritional and physicochemical requirements determining the sink strength is summarized.

Older Than Genes: The Acetyl CoA Pathway and Origins

The antiquity of the acetyl CoA pathway is usually seen in light of CO2 fixation; its role in primordial energy coupling via acyl phosphates and substrate-level phosphorylation is emphasized here.

Metabolism of homoacetogens

The homoacetogenic bacteria are strictly anaerobic microorganisms that catalyze the formation of acetate from C1 units in their energy metabolism, which convert a variety of different substrates to acetate as the major end product.

Heterologous Production of an Energy-Conserving Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase Complex in the Hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus

The functional transfer of CO utilization between Thermococcus and Pyrococcus species demonstrated herein is representative of the horizontal gene transfer of an environmentally relevant metabolic capability.

Carbon monoxide-dependent energy metabolism in anaerobic bacteria and archaea

Recent insights into the CO-dependent physiology of anaerobic microorganisms with a focus on methanogenic archaea are summarized and Methanosarcina acetivorans, thought to strictly rely on the process of methanogenesis, exemplifies how the beneficial redox properties of CO can be exploited in unexpected ways by anaerobia microorganisms.

Unfamiliar metabolic links in the central carbon metabolism.

Comparative biochemistry of CO2 fixation and the evolution of autotrophy.

Different lines of evidence, including experimental reports on the NiS/FeS-mediated C-C bond formation from CO and CH3SH are used here to argue that the first CO2-fixation route may have been a semi-enzymatic Wood-like pathway.

Alternative pathways of carbon dioxide fixation: insights into the early evolution of life?

Five alternative autotrophic pathways exist in prokaryotes that differ fundamentally from the Calvin-Benson cycle and reveal that the formation of an activated acetic acid from inorganic carbon represents the initial step toward metabolism.

Reaction engineering analysis of the autotrophic energy metabolism of Clostridium aceticum

The addition of the Na+‐selective ionophore ETH2120 or the protonophore CCCP or the H+/cation‐antiporter monensin revealed that an H+ gradient is used as primary energy conservation mechanism, which strengthens the exceptional position of C. aceticum as acetogenic bacterium showing an H+.

Carbon monoxide conversion with Clostridium aceticum

Analysis of the autotrophic potential revealed that the first isolated acetogenic bacterium Clostridium aceticum was able to use CO as sole carbon and energy source for chemolithoautotrophic carbon fixation but simultaneously showed little tolerance to high CO concentrations.
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45 References

CO2 fixation in acetogenic bacteria: Variations on a theme

    G. Fuchs
    Biology, Environmental Science
  • 1986
Emphasis is placed upon the acetyl CoA pathway in acetogenic bacteria, but important advances in the study of other strict anaerobes are also considered.

The autotrophic pathway of acetogenic bacteria. Role of CO dehydrogenase disulfide reductase.

An enzyme from Clostridium thermoaceticum has been isolated which reduces disulfides of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and it has been named CO dehydrogenase disulfide reductase. The enzyme is a…

Acetate biosynthesis by acetogenic bacteria. Evidence that carbon monoxide dehydrogenase is the condensing enzyme that catalyzes the final steps of the synthesis.

Acetyl-CoA pathway of autotrophic growth. Identification of the methyl-binding site of the CO dehydrogenase.

Controlled potential enzymology of methyl transfer reactions involved in acetyl-CoA synthesis by CO dehydrogenase and the corrinoid/iron-sulfur protein from Clostridium thermoaceticum.

Synthesis of Acetyl Coenzyme A from Carbon Monoxide, Methyltetrahydrofolate, and Coenzyme A by Enzymes from Clostridium thermoaceticum

It is proposed that these reactions are part of the mechanism which enables certain autotrophic bacteria to grow on CO and that CH3THF is synthesized from CO and tetrahydrofolate which then is converted to acetyl-CoA, which serves as a precursor in other anabolic reactions.

Chemical modification of the functional arginine residues of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase from Clostridium thermoaceticum.

The role of arginine residues in binding of CoA by CODH is determined and evidence is presented that the arginines interact with the pyrophosphate moiety of Coa.

Evidence that an iron-nickel-carbon complex is formed by reaction of CO with the CO dehydrogenase from Clostridium thermoaceticum.

It is demonstrated that iron is also a component of this ESR-detectable complex, and it is proposed that these atoms exist in a spin-coupled complex with net spin = 1/2, analogous to other iron-sulfur centers in which the metals are bridged by acid-labile sulfide.

Involvement of tryptophan residues at the coenzyme A binding site of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase from Clostridium thermoaceticum.

It appears that certain tryptophans are involved at or near the CoA binding site of CODH, which plays a central role in the newly discovered acetyl-CoA pathway.

Purification of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, a nickel enzyme from Clostridium thermocaceticum.

It has been determined that the dehydrogenase is a metallo nickel enzyme and that ferredoxin and a membrane-bound b-type cytochrome, both obtained from C. thermoaceticum, are rapidly reduced by the enzyme in the presence of carbon monoxide and both are considered to be native electron carriers.