Scientists map how bacteria build their own electron-shuttle molecules
Kruk J, Nowicka B, Szymańska R, Gabruk M
Soil Health
The bacteria living in your compost pile, soil, and root zones rely on these electron-shuttling molecules to breathe and photosynthesize without oxygen, which is part of what makes healthy soil biology tick.
Many bacteria make a molecule called menaquinone that works like a tiny electrical wire, shuttling electrons around inside the cell. This review pulls together what scientists know about where these molecules show up, what jobs they do (including helping some bacteria photosynthesize), and the two different chemical pathways microbes use to build them from scratch.
Key Findings
Menaquinones occur in the majority of bacterial species with wide structural variation in side-chain length, saturation, and ring modifications
Beyond anaerobic respiration, menaquinones function in bacterial photosynthesis, extracellular electron transport, cellular signaling, and protein disulfide bond formation via the DsbA-DsbB system
Two distinct biosynthetic routes exist: the classical pathway and the newly characterized futalosine pathway, with nearly all enzymatic steps now identified
chevron_right Technical Summary
This review explains menaquinones, vitamin K-like molecules that bacteria use to move electrons around, powering everything from breathing without oxygen to photosynthesis and building protein bridges. Scientists have now mapped out two separate biosynthesis pathways bacteria use to make these molecules, including a newly understood 'futalosine' route.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Menaquinones in bacteria - occurrence, function and biosynthesis.
Menaquinones (MKs), known mainly as respiratory quinones in bacteria, are found in the majority of bacterial species and show great variety as regards to the structure, i.e. the length of the side-...
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