Methanosarcina acetivorans Raw sequence reads. Methanosarcina acetivorans

The methanogenic pathway in Methanosarcina acetivorans was disrupted by removing the membrane-bound methyltransferase Mtr, resulting in the strain MKOmtr3. Further adaptive evolution led to a strain, MKOmtrSF, capable of sustained growth by CO-dependent acetogenesis. Still, a minute flux through the methane-liberating reaction remained essential, which was attributed to the involvement of the heterodisulfide of HS-CoB and HS-CoM in at least one essential anabolic reaction.