Selenocysteine, Pyrrolysine, and the Unique Energy Metabolism of Methanogenic Archaea

Methanogenic archaea are a group of strictly anaerobic microorganisms characterized by their strict dependence on the process of methanogenesis for energy conservation. Among the archaea, they are also the only known group synthesizing proteins containing selenocysteine or pyrrolysine. All but one o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archaea 2010-01, Vol.2010 (2010), p.61-74
Main Authors: Rother, Michael, Krzycki, Joseph A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino acids
Archaeal Proteins - genetics
Archaeal Proteins - metabolism
Bacteria
Codon, Terminator - metabolism
Colleges & universities
Crystal structure
E coli
Energy Metabolism - genetics
Euryarchaeota - genetics
Euryarchaeota - metabolism
Genes
Lysine - analogs & derivatives
Lysine - metabolism
Methane - metabolism
Microbiology
Phylogeny
Review
Selenocysteine - metabolism
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Summary:Methanogenic archaea are a group of strictly anaerobic microorganisms characterized by their strict dependence on the process of methanogenesis for energy conservation. Among the archaea, they are also the only known group synthesizing proteins containing selenocysteine or pyrrolysine. All but one of the known archaeal pyrrolysine-containing and all but two of the confirmed archaeal selenocysteine-containing protein are involved in methanogenesis. Synthesis of these proteins proceeds through suppression of translational stop codons but otherwise the two systems are fundamentally different. This paper highlights these differences and summarizes the recent developments in selenocysteine- and pyrrolysine-related research on archaea and aims to put this knowledge into the context of their unique energy metabolism.
ISSN:1472-3646
1472-3654
DOI:10.1155/2010/453642