Respiratory quinones in Archaea: phylogenetic distribution and application as biomarkers in the marine environment

Abstract

The distribution of respiratory quinone electron carriers among cultivated organisms provides clues on both the taxonomy of their producers and the redox processes these are mediating. Our study of the quinone inventories of 25 archaeal species belonging to the phyla Eury-, Cren- and Thaumarchaeota facilitates their use as chemotaxonomic markers for ecologically important archaeal clades. Saturated and monounsaturated menaquinones with six isoprenoid units forming the alkyl chain may serve as chemotaxonomic markers for Thaumarchaeota. Other diagnostic biomarkers are thiophene-bearing quinones for Sulfolobales and methanophenazines as functional quinone analogues of the Methanosarcinales. The ubiquity of saturated menaquinones in the Archaea in comparison to Bacteria suggests that these compounds may represent an ancestral and diagnostic feature of the Archaea. Overlap between quinone compositions of distinct thermophilic and halophilic archaea and bacteria may indicate lateral gene transfer. The biomarker potential of thaumarchaeal quinones was exemplarily demonstrated on a water column profile of the Black Sea. Both, thaumarchaeal quinones and membrane lipids showed similar distributions with maxima at the chemocline. Quinone distributions indicate that Thaumarchaeota dominate respiratory activity at a narrow interval in the chemocline, while they contribute only 9% to the microbial biomass at this depth, as determined by membrane lipid analysis.

Physiological Evidence for Isopotential Tunneling in the Electron Transport Chain of Methane-Producing Archaea

“…S4b). We interpreted these results as an indication that MPh species synthesized by M. mazei and M. acetivorans have two saturated prenyl moieties on the pentaprenyl tail, whereas that from M. barkeri has only one saturated prenyl moiety, confirming the MPh prenyl tail saturation reported by others (31). Archaea and bacteria adjust the quantity of membrane soluble electron carriers during batch growth.…”

Unusual Butane- and Pentanetriol-Based Tetraether Lipids in Methanomassiliicoccus luminyensis, a Representative of the Seventh Order of Methanogens

“…Additionally, in contrast to the high diversity of respiratory quinones in related members of the Thermoplasmatales (34,73,74), no quinones were detected in M. luminyensis. Similarly, no methanophenazines, respiratory quinone analogues found in Methanosarcinales (34,75) and Methanosaeta (76) were detected in M. luminyensis. This finding supports studies by Lang et al (20) and Söllinger et al (15), who suggested that the biochemistry of methanogenesis in Methanomassiliicoccales may be fundamentally different from that in other, methanophenazine-and cytochrome-containing methylotrophic archaea.…”

“…(9). Additionally, in contrast to the high diversity of respiratory quinones in related members of the Thermoplasmatales (34,73,74), no quinones were detected in M. luminyensis. Similarly, no methanophenazines, respiratory quinone analogues found in Methanosarcinales (34,75) and Methanosaeta (76) were detected in M. luminyensis.…”

“…We further validated the potential of BDGTs and PDGTs as biomarkers for M. luminyensis by analyzing 25 cultured archaea that we recently analyzed for their respiratory quinone compositions (34). These species cover the phyla Euryarchaeota, Crenarchaeota, and Thaumarchaeota and within the Euryarchaeota several methanogens as well as the Methanomassiliicoccales-related thermoacidophile Thermoplasma acidophilum.…”

“…The lipid analyses were facilitated by recently developed high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-mass spectrometry (MS) methods that allow the comprehensive, simultaneous analysis of archaeal core and intact polar glycerol-based membrane lipids as well as respiratory quinones, i.e., membranebound electron carriers (33,34). We show that M. luminyensis strain B10…”