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.
1
Menaquinones occur in the majority of bacterial species with wide structural variation in side-chain length, saturation, and ring modifications
2
Beyond anaerobic respiration, menaquinones function in bacterial photosynthesis, extracellular electron transport, cellular signaling, and protein disulfide bond formation via the DsbA-DsbB system
3
Two distinct biosynthetic routes exist: the classical pathway and the newly characterized futalosine pathway, with nearly all enzymatic steps now identified
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