Biochemistry of Methyl-Coenzyme M Reductase: The Nickel Metalloenzyme that Catalyzes the Final Step in Synthesis and the First Step in Anaerobic Oxidation of the Greenhouse Gas Methane - The Metal-Driven Biogeochemistry of Gaseous Compounds in the Environment - page 139

available genetic, biochemical, chemical and microbiological tools to understand
the process of methane oxidation and to overcome the current limitations.

Abbreviations

ACS acetyl-CoA synthase

AOM anaerobic oxidation of methane

bce before the common era ¼before Christ

BES bromoethanesulfonate

BPS bromopropanesulfonate

CNG compressed natural gas

CoA coenzyme A

CoBSH coenzyme B mercaptoheptanoylthreonine phosphate

CODH carbon monoxide dehydrogenase

CoMSH coenzyme M mercaptoethanesulfonate

DFT density functional theory

ENDOR electron nuclear double resonance

EPR electron paramagnetic resonance

ESEEM electron spin echo modulation

EXAFS extended X-ray absorption fine structure

HYSCORE hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy

LNG liquid natural gas

MCD magnetic circular dichroism

MCR methyl-coenzyme M reductase

NHE normal hydrogen electrode

NMR nuclear magnetic resonance

SAM S-adenosylmethionine

SOD superoxide dismutase

Acknowledgments I thank those students, postdoctoral fellows and collaborators who have been
working on the biochemistry of methane formation, with special thanks to Dariusz Sliwa for
helping to generate Figure 1 for this paper. I gratefully acknowledge support (DE-FG02-
08ER15931) from the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of
Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy and from ARPA-E
(DE-AR0000426).

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