A methanotrophic archaeon couples anaerobic oxidation of methane to Fe(III) reduction

• Published in: The ISME Journal Vol. 12; no. 8; pp. 1929 - 1939
• Main Authors: Cai, Chen, Leu, Andy O, Xie, Guo-Jun, Guo, Jianhua, Feng, Yuexing, Zhao, Jian-Xin, Tyson, Gene W, Yuan, Zhiguo, Hu, Shihu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.08.2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45; 45/22; 45/23; 45/77; 45/90; 45/91; 631/326/171/1878; 631/326/26/2142; Anaerobic processes; Anaerobiosis; Archaea; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bioreactors; Candidatus Methanoperedenaceae; Carbon cycle; Cytochromes; Ecology; Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Ferric Compounds - metabolism; Genes; Heme; Iron; Iron 57; Labeling; Life Sciences; Metabolic pathways; Methane; Methane - metabolism; Methanogenesis; Methanosarcinales - metabolism; Microbial Ecology; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Oxidation; Oxidation-Reduction; Reduction
• ISSN: 1751-7362; 1751-7370
• DOI: 10.1038/s41396-018-0109-x

Microbially mediated anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is a key process in the regulation of methane emissions to the atmosphere. Iron can serve as an electron acceptor for AOM, and it has been suggested that Fe(III)-dependent AOM potentially comprises a major global methane sink. Although it has been proposed that anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea can facilitate this process, their active metabolic pathways have not been confirmed. Here we report the enrichment and characterisation of a novel archaeon in a laboratory-scale bioreactor fed with Fe(III) oxide (ferrihydrite) and methane. Long-term performance data, in conjunction with the 13 C- and 57 Fe-labelling batch experiments, demonstrated that AOM was coupled to Fe(III) reduction to Fe(II) in this bioreactor. Metagenomic analysis showed that this archaeon belongs to a novel genus within family Candidatus Methanoperedenaceae , and possesses genes encoding the “reverse methanogenesis” pathway, as well as multi-heme c -type cytochromes which are hypothesised to facilitate dissimilatory Fe(III) reduction. Metatranscriptomic analysis revealed upregulation of these genes, supporting that this archaeon can independently mediate AOM using Fe(III) as the terminal electron acceptor. We propose the name Candidatus “ Methanoperedens ferrireducens ” for this microorganism. The potential role of “ M. ferrireducens ” in linking the carbon and iron cycles in environments rich in methane and iron should be investigated in future research.