The Genome of M. acetivorans Reveals Extensive Metabolic and Physiological Diversity

  1. James E. Galagan1,
  2. Chad Nusbaum1,
  3. Alice Roy1,
  4. Matthew G. Endrizzi1,
  5. Pendexter Macdonald1,
  6. Will FitzHugh1,
  7. Sarah Calvo1,
  8. Reinhard Engels1,
  9. Serge Smirnov1,
  10. Deven Atnoor1,
  11. Adam Brown1,
  12. Nicole Allen1,
  13. Jerome Naylor1,
  14. Nicole Stange-Thomann1,
  15. Kurt DeArellano1,
  16. Robin Johnson1,
  17. Lauren Linton1,
  18. Paul McEwan1,
  19. Kevin McKernan1,
  20. Jessica Talamas1,
  21. Andrea Tirrell1,
  22. Wenjuan Ye1,
  23. Andrew Zimmer1,
  24. Robert D. Barber2,
  25. Isaac Cann3,
  26. David E. Graham4,
  27. David A. Grahame5,
  28. Adam M. Guss6,
  29. Reiner Hedderich7,
  30. Cheryl Ingram-Smith8,
  31. H. Craig Kuettner6,
  32. Joseph A. Krzycki9,
  33. John A. Leigh10,
  34. Weixi Li11,
  35. Jinfeng Liu12,
  36. Biswarup Mukhopadhyay6,
  37. John N. Reeve8,
  38. Kerry Smith8,
  39. Timothy A. Springer13,
  40. Lowell A. Umayam14,
  41. Owen White14,
  42. Robert H. White4,
  43. Everly Conway de Macario15,
  44. James G. Ferry16,
  45. Ken F. Jarrell17,
  46. Hua Jing13,
  47. Alberto J.L. Macario15,
  48. Ian Paulsen14,
  49. Matthew Pritchett6,
  50. Kevin R. Sowers18,
  51. Ronald V. Swanson19,
  52. Steven H. Zinder20,
  53. Eric Lander1,21,
  54. William W. Metcalf6, and
  55. Bruce Birren1,22
  1. 1Whitehead Institute Center for Genome Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02141, USA; 2University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Department of Biological Sciences, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141, USA; 3University of Illinois, Department of Animal Sciences, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA; 4Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Biochemistry, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0308, USA; 5Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4799, USA; 6University of Illinois, Department of Microbiology, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA; 7Max-Planck-Institut für Terrestrische Mikrobiologie, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße, D-35043 Marburg, Germany; 8Clemson University, Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA; 9Ohio State University, Department of Microbiology, Columbus Ohio 43210, USA; 10University of Washington, Department of Microbiology, Seattle, Washington 98195-7242, USA; 11University of Kentucky, Molecular and Cellular Biology, T. H. Morgan School of Biological Sciences, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA; 12Columbia University, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, New York, New York 10032, USA; 13The Center for Blood Research and Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA; 14The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Maryland 20878, USA; 15Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health and Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, The University at Albany (SUNY), Albany, New York 12201-0509, USA; 16Penn State University, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA; 17Queen's University, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada; 18University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Center of Marine Biotechnology, Columbus Center, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA; 19Syrrx, Inc., San Diego, California 92121, USA; 20Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA; 21Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Abstract

Methanogenesis, the biological production of methane, plays a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle and contributes significantly to global warming. The majority of methane in nature is derived from acetate. Here we report the complete genome sequence of an acetate-utilizing methanogen, Methanosarcina acetivorans C2A. Methanosarcineae are the most metabolically diverse methanogens, thrive in a broad range of environments, and are unique among the Archaea in forming complex multicellular structures. This diversity is reflected in the genome ofM. acetivorans. At 5,751,492 base pairs it is by far the largest known archaeal genome. The 4524 open reading frames code for a strikingly wide and unanticipated variety of metabolic and cellular capabilities. The presence of novel methyltransferases indicates the likelihood of undiscovered natural energy sources for methanogenesis, whereas the presence of single-subunit carbon monoxide dehydrogenases raises the possibility of nonmethanogenic growth. Although motility has not been observed in any Methanosarcineae, a flagellin gene cluster and two complete chemotaxis gene clusters were identified. The availability of genetic methods, coupled with its physiological and metabolic diversity, makes M. acetivorans a powerful model organism for the study of archaeal biology.

[Sequence, data, annotations, and analyses are available athttp://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/. The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank data library under accession no. AE010299.]

Footnotes

  • ↵22 Corresponding author.

  • E-MAIL bwb{at}genome.wi.mit.edu; FAX (617) 258-0903.

  • Article and publication are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.223902.

    • Received November 16, 2001.
    • Accepted February 13, 2002.
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  1. doi: 10.1101/gr.223902 Genome Res. 12: 532-542 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

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