An enrichment culture from hot spring sediments in China suggests that Ca. M. sphaerolipidus uses a suite of metabolic pathways to convert long-chain fatty acids such as oleic acid to methane, a proce...

Methanogenic archaea (methanogens) are key drivers of global carbon cycling and biomethane production, thriving in diverse anaerobic environments thro…

The methane-generating enzyme from methanogenic archaea must be reactivated via a dedicated system. New molecular insights demonstrate that a key component of the reactivation machinery is redox sensi...

Cyanobacteria are major contributors to global photosynthesis and are intensively studied for sustainable green H2 production. Central to this process is the bidirectional [NiFe]-hydrogenase HoxEFUYH,...

Association of the L-cluster with the nitrogenase assembly proteins NifEN (NifENL) or NifB (NifBL) intrinsically endows these proteins with N2-reducing activity, enabling in vitro N2-reduction by Nif....

Microorganisms have historically been classified as obligate aerobes or anaerobes, facultative anaerobes, or microaerophiles, reflecting differences in respiratory strategies dictated by the use of oxygen and alternative electron acceptors. Recent discoveries provide evidence that a deviant strategy, the concurrent reduction of oxygen and other electron acceptors, is more widespread than previously thought. Such co-respiring bacteria employ hybrid metabolic strategies that extend models of electron acceptor use. In this review, we investigate mechanisms of co-respiration, summarize the biochemical components enabling parallel electron flow, and discuss the regulation of aerobic and anaerobic pathways under changing redox conditions. We also examine the evolutionary context of these strategies during the rise of oxygen on early Earth and outline experimental approaches needed to resolve co-respiration in individual cells.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 26 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41929-026-01498-8Biological nitrogen fixation is vital for sustainable agriculture, yet nitrogenase engineering is hindered by limited insight into their essential metallocluster cofactor assembly and transfer. Here, by capturing the nitrogenase biosynthetic component NifEN in multiple structural states, a tunnel-and-switch mechanism that coordinates receipt, maturation and delivery of the FeMo-cofactor precursor is revealed.

Award honors outstanding dissertation on CO₂ fixation and energy conservation in microorganisms

Nickel is a versatile element that plays critical roles in Earth's geological and biological evolution, from the depths of the magmatic mantle to the …

Microbial alcohol production from waste gases could enable sustainable carbon cycling. Now, the tungsten-dependent aldehyde:ferredoxin oxidoreductase from the gas-converting bacterium Clostridium auto...

Methylthio-alkane reductases are recently discovered enzymes that can produce methanethiol and small hydrocarbons from methylated sulfur compounds. Now the cryo-EM structure of a methylthio-alkane red...

Corrinoid-dependent enzymes either catalyze methyltransfer reactions, or they generate substrate radicals using adenosylcobalamin for subsequent rearrangement reactions. The corrinoid-dependent methyl...

Abstract. Protein structural phylogenetics is an interdisciplinary branch of molecular evolution that (i) uses 3D structural data to trace evolutionary his

Elucidating the nature of the metallocofactors in nitrogenase enzymes, and preparing synthetic analogues of these clusters, is a classic target for bioinorganic chemists. Now the transformation of [Fe...

Enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) utilizing hydrogenases to oxidize hydrogen offer a sustainable approach to energy conservation. However, the oxygen se…

Nature Reviews Microbiology - Metal ions are required for all cells, and their homeostasis relies on ancient mechanisms that facilitate their import, distribution and storage. In this Review,...

Two distantly related methanogens shift the methanogenic pathway under nickel limitation, suggesting that methanogens adapt to changing bioavailability of nickel by rerouting electron flow between two...

Abstract. Sequence-based maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetics is a widely used method for inferring evolutionary relationships, which has illuminated the

Nature Catalysis - Clustering for methane

Two ferredoxins, FdC and FdN, are collectively essential for the process of nitrogen fixation by the iron nitrogenase in R. capsulatus. We explore the biophysical factors, through spectroscopic and s....

„Nature“-Publikation offenbart die evolutionäre Verbindung zwischen zwei fundamentalen biologischen Prozessen