Single-cell genomics reveals pyrrolysine-encoding potential in members of uncultivated archaeal candidate division MSBL1

Yue Guan, Mohamed Haroon, Intikhab Alam, James G. Ferry, Ulrich Stingl

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Pyrrolysine (Pyl), the 22nd canonical amino acid, is only decoded and synthesized by a limited number of organisms in the domains Archaea and Bacteria. Pyl is encoded by the amber codon UAG, typically a stop codon. To date, all known Pyl-decoding archaea are able to carry out methylotrophic methanogenesis. The functionality of methylamine methyltransferases, an important component of corrinoid-dependent methyltransfer reactions, depends on the presence of Pyl. Here, we present a putative pyl gene cluster obtained from single-cell genomes of the archaeal Mediterranean Sea Brine Lakes group 1 (MSBL1) from the Red Sea. Functional annotation of the MSBL1 single cell amplified genomes (SAGs) also revealed a complete corrinoid-dependent methyl-transfer pathway suggesting that members of MSBL1 may possibly be capable of synthesizing Pyl and metabolizing methylated amines. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)404-410
Number of pages7
JournalEnvironmental Microbiology Reports
Volume9
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 6 2017

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: This study was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) through baseline funding and the SEDCO Research Excellence award to US.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Single-cell genomics reveals pyrrolysine-encoding potential in members of uncultivated archaeal candidate division MSBL1'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this