| Description |
Atmospheric methane causes a variety of environmental concerns, with the primary concern being global warming. It has become apparent that in addition to minimizing emissions, methane will have to be removed from the atmosphere to limit near-term warming. One promising direction for methane mitigation is the use of methanotrophic bacteria, i.e., bacteria that metabolize methane. The development of cost-effective methanotrophic bioreactors, however, hinges on improving the efficiency of methane consumption at low concentrations. Towards this goal, the optimization of methanotrophic biofilms for increased methane mass transfer could play a pivotal role. Herein the composition and characteristics of methanotrophic biofilms are explored. Three proteins were found to be of interest for methane mass transfer purposes (herein denoted RS95, RS15, and RS90 based on their NCBI gene numbers). The structures of these proteins were predicted with AlphaFold and their homologies were found with BLASTp. Homology with hyalin, hemophore HasA, and protein-glutamate methylesterase may help predict the functioning of RS95, RS15, and RS90. The AlphaFold results include a per-residue model confidence score (pLDDT) that describes the likelihood that the predicted structure is accurate on a scale of 0 to 100. The AlphaFold structures have pLDDT scores of 82, 85, and 61, respectively. Additionally, an RS9090 dimer was predicted with a pLDDT score of 67. More information on the exact function of the biofilm proteins may be uncovered by designing experiments based on the homologies to cater to the expected functions of specific proteins. The AlphaFold structures may additionally be used in simulations of these proteins. These future experiments may show how these proteins associate with methane and clarify their functions in the biofilm. The results gleaned from this research will play an important role in optimizing innovative technology for atmospheric methane removal. |
