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  4. Structural comparison of (hyper-)thermophilic nitrogenase reductases from three marine Methanococcales
 
research article

Structural comparison of (hyper-)thermophilic nitrogenase reductases from three marine Methanococcales

Maslać, Nevena
•
Cadoux, Cécile
•
Bolte, Pauline
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August 1, 2024
FEBS Journal

The FEBS Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Federation of European Biochemical Societies.The nitrogenase reductase NifH catalyses ATP-dependent electron delivery to the Mo-nitrogenase, a reaction central to biological dinitrogen (N2) fixation. While NifHs have been extensively studied in bacteria, structural information about their archaeal counterparts is limited. Archaeal NifHs are considered more ancient, particularly those from Methanococcales, a group of marine hydrogenotrophic methanogens, which includes diazotrophs growing at temperatures near 92 °C. Here, we structurally and biochemically analyse NifHs from three Methanococcales, offering the X-ray crystal structures from meso-, thermo-, and hyperthermophilic methanogens. While NifH from Methanococcus maripaludis (37 °C) was obtained through heterologous recombinant expression, the proteins from Methanothermococcus thermolithotrophicus (65 °C) and Methanocaldococcus infernus (85 °C) were natively purified from the diazotrophic archaea. The structures from M. thermolithotrophicus crystallised as isolated exhibit high flexibility. In contrast, the complexes of NifH with MgADP obtained from the three methanogens are superposable, more rigid, and present remarkable structural conservation with their homologues. They retain key structural features of P-loop NTPases and share similar electrostatic profiles with the counterpart from the bacterial model organism Azotobacter vinelandii. In comparison to the NifH from the phylogenetically distant Methanosarcina acetivorans, these reductases do not cross-react significantly with Mo-nitrogenase from A. vinelandii. However, they associate with bacterial nitrogenase when ADP· (Formula presented.) is added to mimic a transient reactive state. Accordingly, detailed surface analyses suggest that subtle substitutions would affect optimal binding during the catalytic cycle between the NifH from Methanococcales and the bacterial nitrogenase, implying differences in the N2-machinery from these ancient archaea.

  • Details
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Type
research article
DOI
10.1111/febs.17148
Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85191776173

PubMed ID

38696373

Author(s)
Maslać, Nevena
Cadoux, Cécile
Bolte, Pauline
Murken, Fenja
Gu, Wenyu  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Milton, Ross D.
Wagner, Tristan
Date Issued

2024-08-01

Published in
FEBS Journal
Volume

291

Issue

15

Start page

3454

End page

3480

Subjects

nitrogen fixation

•

nitrogenase reductase

•

thermostability

•

X-ray crystallography

•

[4Fe–4S] cluster

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
MICROBE  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

Max Planck Society

Swiss National Science Foundation

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Schwerpunktprogram

WA 4053/1‐1

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Available on Infoscience
January 16, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/243017
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