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Abstract:
Methanopyrus kandleri is a hyperthermophilic archaeon growing optimally at 98° on H2 and CO2 with the formation of CH4. The organism belonging to the kingdom of Euryarchaeota is the most thermophilic methanogen known so far and is phylogenetically only distantly related to all other known methanogens. The pathway of CO2 reduction to CH4 in M. kandleri has been shown to be identical to that used in all other methanogens. It involves six tetrahydromethanopterin-specific enzymes. Tetrahydromethanopterin (H4MPT) is a tetrahydrofolate analog. This chapter describes the purification, assay, and properties of the five characterized H4MPT-specific enzymes from M. kandleri. It also provides a description of the isolation of the coenzymes required to assay these enzymes.
