Single‐cell genomics reveals pyrrolysine‐encoding potential in members of uncultivated archaeal candidate division MSBL1. Issue 4 (6th June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Guan, Yue; Haroon, Mohamed F.; Alam, Intikhab; Ferry, James G.; Stingl, Ulrich
• Is Part Of: Environmental microbiology reports. Volume 9:Issue 4(2017:Aug.)
• Page Start: 404
• Page End: 410
• Publication Date: 2017-06-06
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Environmental Microbiology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1758-2229.12545
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-2229

Abstract

Summary: 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.