RESUMO

Methanogenic archaea have received attention due to their potential use in biotechnological applications such as methane production, so their metabolism and regulation are topics of special interest. When growing in a nutrient-rich medium, these organisms exhibit gluconeogenic metabolism; however, under starvation conditions, they turn to glycolytic metabolism. To date, no regulatory mechanism has been described for this gluconeogenic/glycolytic metabolic switch. Here, we report that adenosine monophosphate (AMP) activates both enzymatic activities of the bifunctional adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-dependent phosphofructokinase/glucokinase from Methanococcus maripaludis (MmPFK/GK). To understand this phenomenon, we performed a comprehensive kinetic characterisation, including determination of the kinetics, substrate inhibition and AMP activation mechanism of this enzyme. We determined that MmPFK/GK has an ordered-sequential mechanism, in which MgADP is the first substrate to bind and AMP is the last product released. The enzyme also displays substrate inhibition by both sugar substrates; we determined that this inhibition occurs through the formation of catalytically nonproductive enzyme complexes caused by sugar binding. For both activities, the AMP activation mechanism occurs primarily through incremental changes in the affinity for the sugar substrate, with this effect being higher in the GK than in the PFK activity. Interestingly, due to the increase in the sugar substrate affinity caused by AMP, an enhancement in the sugar substrate inhibition effect was also observed for both activities, which can be explained by an increase in sugar binding leading to the formation of dead-end complexes. These results shed light on the regulatory mechanisms of methanogenic archaeal sugar metabolism, a phenomenon that has been largely unexplored.

Assuntos

Mathanococcus , Fosfofrutoquinases , Difosfato de Adenosina , Monofosfato de Adenosina , Mathanococcus/genética , Açúcares

RESUMO

A plethora of non-coding RNAs has been discovered using high-resolution transcriptomics tools, indicating that transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation is much more complex than previously appreciated. Small RNAs associated with transcription start sites of annotated coding regions (TSSaRNAs) are pervasive in both eukaryotes and bacteria. Here, we provide evidence for existence of TSSaRNAs in several archaeal transcriptomes including: Halobacterium salinarum, Pyrococcus furiosus, Methanococcus maripaludis, and Sulfolobus solfataricus. We validated TSSaRNAs from the model archaeon Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1 by deep sequencing two independent small-RNA enriched (RNA-seq) and a primary-transcript enriched (dRNA-seq) strand-specific libraries. We identified 652 transcripts, of which 179 were shown to be primary transcripts (∼7% of the annotated genome). Distinct growth-associated expression patterns between TSSaRNAs and their cognate genes were observed, indicating a possible role in environmental responses that may result from RNA polymerase with varying pausing rhythms. This work shows that TSSaRNAs are ubiquitous across all domains of life.

Assuntos

Archaea/genética , RNA Arqueal/fisiologia , RNA não Traduzido/fisiologia , Regulação da Expressão Gênica em Archaea , Halobacterium salinarum/genética , Sequenciamento de Nucleotídeos em Larga Escala , Mathanococcus/genética , Pyrococcus furiosus/genética , Análise de Sequência de RNA , Sulfolobus solfataricus/genética , Sítio de Iniciação de Transcrição , Transcrição Gênica , Transcriptoma

RESUMO

A plausible architecture of an ancient genetic code is derived from an extended base triplet vector space over the Galois field of the extended base alphabet {D,A,C,G,U}, where symbol D represents one or more hypothetical bases with unspecific pairings. We hypothesized that the high degeneration of a primeval genetic code with five bases and the gradual origin and improvement of a primeval DNA repair system could make possible the transition from ancient to modern genetic codes. Our results suggest that the Watson-Crick base pairing G identical with C and A=U and the non-specific base pairing of the hypothetical ancestral base D used to define the sum and product operations are enough features to determine the coding constraints of the primeval and the modern genetic code, as well as, the transition from the former to the latter. Geometrical and algebraic properties of this vector space reveal that the present codon assignment of the standard genetic code could be induced from a primeval codon assignment. Besides, the Fourier spectrum of the extended DNA genome sequences derived from the multiple sequence alignment suggests that the called period-3 property of the present coding DNA sequences could also exist in the ancient coding DNA sequences. The phylogenetic analyses achieved with metrics defined in the N-dimensional vector space (B(3))(N) of DNA sequences and with the new evolutionary model presented here also suggest that an ancient DNA coding sequence with five or more bases does not contradict the expected evolutionary history.

Assuntos

Evolução Molecular , Código Genético/genética , Modelos Genéticos , Acinetobacter baumannii/genética , Algoritmos , Aminoácidos/genética , Animais , Pareamento de Bases/genética , Análise de Fourier , Genoma Mitocondrial/genética , Humanos , Virus da Influenza A Subtipo H5N1/genética , Mathanococcus/genética , Mutação/genética , Filogenia , Biossíntese de Proteínas/genética , RNA Mensageiro/genética , RNA de Transferência/genética , Transcrição Gênica/genética