Copper plays a very significant role in the physiology of the methanotrophic bacterium Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath). The availability of this metal ion regulates expression of the two forms of the methane-oxidizing enzyme methane monooxygenase (MMO) the bacterium possesses and formation of an extensive intracytoplasmic membrane network [1][2][3][4]. When copper is scarce, at a low copper-to-biomass ratio, a soluble cytoplasmic MMO (sMMO) is responsible for the oxidation of methane. At high copper-to-biomass ratios the particulate MMO (pMMO) is expressed and there is no detectable sMMO expression. Furthermore, copper also influences the expression of at least two of the four M. capsulatus formaldehyde dehydrogenases [5][6][7].
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