Comparative Prediction of Electrical Interplay Systems in Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus ΔH and Metal-loving Bacteria

Bioelectrochemical technology has been developed to elucidate the mechanisms of electrical interplay systems for electromethanogenesis in microbial electrolysis cells (MEC). In the present study, we evaluated the electrical interplay systems for electromethanogenesis in Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus ΔH (MTH). The modular structure of its protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was compared with the electrical interplay systems of metal-loving eubacteria (Geobacter metallireducens and G. sulfurreducens). The structure-function-metabolism link of each protein pair was evaluated to mine experimental PPI information from the literature. The results of our study indicate that the topological properties of the PPI networks are robust and consistent for sharing homologous protein interactions across metal-loving eubacteria. A large fraction of genes and associated PPI networks were established in the MTH for direct interspecies electron transfer systems, which were divergent from metal-loving eubacteria. MTH is predicted to generate CH4 by reducing CO2 with hydrogen in the geothermal environment through growth-associated electromethanogenesis. Thus, the present computational study will facilitate an understanding of the proteomic contexts and mechanisms of interspecies electron transfer between thermophilic autotrophic methanogenic archaea and metal-loving Eubacteria for electromethanogenesis.

Keywords: Electrical interplay system, Electromethanogenesis, Geobacter, Methanothermobacter, Nanowire, Protein networks, Systems biology.