Engineering Peptides to Catalyze and Control Stabilization of Gas Hydrates: Learning From Nature

• Main Authors: Mohammad Reza Ghaani (5706857), Christopher C. R. Allen (8042219), Timofey Skvortsov (459186), Niall J. English (1332720)
• Format: Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Biophysics; Biochemistry; Molecular Biology; Biotechnology; Inorganic Chemistry; Computational Biology; Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified; peptide-focused regulation; marine methylotroph porin proteins; peptide sequences; marine hydrates; methane turnover; engineering Peptides; microorganism-produced proteins; biocatalytic hydrate kinetics enhancement; inclusion compounds; hydrate kinetics; Control Stabilization; hydrate formation; methane hydrate formation; Nature Clathrate hydrates; approximation mechanism; conditions simulating; water acts; guest molecules; molecular-level mechanisms; Gas Hydrates; methane hydrates; Methane hydrate
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c01224.s001

Clathrate hydrates are nonstoichiometric crystalline inclusion compounds. Water acts as a “host lattice” and traps small guest molecules in stable cavities. One example, methane hydrates, are especially prevalent in situ at the seafloor. Although microorganism-produced proteins and polypeptides, including marine methylotroph porin proteins, can accelerate methane hydrate formation under conditions simulating their natural occurrence at the seafloor, the role that particular peptide sequences play in biocatalytic hydrate kinetics enhancement is unclear, especially the underlying molecular-level mechanisms. Here, we reveal the peptide-focused regulation of microorganisms’ role in managing marine hydrates via an approximation mechanism of enzymatic catalysis accelerating hydrate formation. Aside from control of hydrate kinetics per se , we speculate that this peptide-centric mechanistic understanding could lead to a re-evaluation of the extent and geological importance of bioregulation of methane turnover in the biosphere.