ArticleNature2010
Oxidation of methane by a biological dicopper centre.
Article in Nature, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 131 papers.
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Who cites it
131 citing papers in PubMed, 539 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bisulfate-mediated selective methane oxidation under mild aqueous conditions.Science advances · 2026Article
- Ammonia monooxygenase: a work in progress.Chemical science · 2026Review
- Unsymmetric bimetallic centres in metalloproteins and synthetic models.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2026Review
- Impact of Copper on the Physiology and Transcriptome of Methylosinus Trichosporium OB3b Grown on Either Methane or Methanol.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Critical evaluation of three cryo-EM structures of particulate methane monooxygenase by quantum refinement.Acta crystallographica. Section D, Structural biology · 2025Article
- Orchestrating Multi-Ångstrom Spaced Cu─Ni Dual-Atom Pair for Synergistic C─H Activation in Direct Methane Oxidation to Methanol.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Article
- Recent Advances in Bioinspired Cu-Directed C-H Hydroxylation Reactions.Accounts of chemical research · 2025Article
- Strain Engineering of CuMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Controlling outer-sphere solvent reorganization energy to turn on or off the function of artificial metalloenzymes.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Efficient CHRSC advances · 2025Article
- Overexpression of native carbonic anhydrases increases carbon conversion efficiency in the methanotrophic biocatalystmSphere · 2024Article
- Direct Methane Oxidation by Copper- and Iron-Dependent Methane Monooxygenases.Chemical reviews · 2024Review
- MmoD regulates soluble methane monooxygenase and methanobactin production inApplied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Perspectives for Using COBioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Fundamental Limitation in Electrochemical Methane Oxidation to Alcohol: A Review and Theoretical Perspective on Overcoming It.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2023Review
- Photocatalytic Conversion of Methane: Current State of the Art, Challenges, and Future Perspectives.ACS environmental Au · 2023Review
- Unexpected complexity of the ammonia monooxygenase in archaea.The ISME journal · 2023Article
- Direct Catalytic Oxidation of Low-Concentration Methane to Methanol in One Step on Ni-Promoted BiOCl Catalysts.ACS omega · 2023Article
- Cell-Free Protein Synthesis of Particulate Methane Monooxygenase into Nanodiscs.ACS synthetic biology · 2022Article
71 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Vast world reserves of methane gas are underutilized as a feedstock for the production of liquid fuels and chemicals owing to the lack of economical and sustainable strategies for the selective oxidation of methane to methanol. Current processes to activate the strong C-H bond (104 kcal mol(-1)) in methane require high temperatures, are costly and inefficient, and produce waste. In nature, methanotrophic bacteria perform this reaction under ambient conditions using metalloenzymes called methane monooxygenases (MMOs). MMOs thus provide the optimal model for an efficient, environmentally sound catalyst. There are two types of MMO. Soluble MMO (sMMO) is expressed by several strains of methanotroph under copper-limited conditions and oxidizes methane with a well-characterized catalytic di-iron centre. Particulate MMO (pMMO) is an integral membrane metalloenzyme produced by all methanotrophs and is composed of three subunits, pmoA, pmoB and pmoC, arranged in a trimeric alpha(3)beta(3)gamma(3) complex. Despite 20 years of research and the availability of two crystal structures, the metal composition and location of the pMMO metal active site are not known. Here we show that pMMO activity is dependent on copper, not iron, and that the copper active site is located in the soluble domains of the pmoB subunit rather than within the membrane. Recombinant soluble fragments of pmoB (spmoB) bind copper and have propylene and methane oxidation activities. Disruption of each copper centre in spmoB by mutagenesis indicates that the active site is a dicopper centre. These findings help resolve the pMMO controversy and provide a promising new approach to developing environmentally friendly C-H oxidation catalysts.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.