Gold helps bacteria to oxidize methane

摘要

With the use of labeled methane-C-14 and by chromatographic analysis it was shown that gold-containing protein ('Au-protein'), isolated from goldphilic Micrococcus luteus bacteria, catalyzes the oxidation of methane to methanol in the system also containing NADH, air, K3Fe(CN)(6) and Tris-HCl buffer. Presumably Au-protein helps bacteria to survive when usual sources of carbon and energy are scarce.