Studying the role of McrD in Methanosarcina acetivorans

McrD in a protein of unknown function encoded by the gene mcrD in the mcr operons of methanogenic archaea. In this work we study the role of McrD by knocking out the gene that encodes it in the model methanogen M. acetivorans. By reintroducing the McrD protein on a plasmid with an affinity tag we purified and structurally characterized McrD-bound assembly intermediates of the methyl-coenzyme M reductase enzyme.