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A methanogen hydrolase reveals the structure of archaeal peptidoglycan

Research Microbiome Biology

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TL;DR - Researchers identified ArmA, a glycosyl hydrolase from the human-gut methanogen Methanobrevibacter smithii, that specifically cleaves methanogen cell walls. Its characterization revealed an unexpected archaeal peptidoglycan structure containing a previously unknown sugar.

  • ArmA is specific to the cell wall of methanogens.
  • The enzyme’s activity enabled structural analysis of archaeal peptidoglycan.
  • The resulting structure includes a sugar that had not previously been identified.
  • The findings advance understanding of cell-wall chemistry in a dominant human gut archaeon.

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A methanogen hydrolase reveals the structure of archaeal peptidoglycan

Nature Robert Smith, Nika Pende, Aline Rifflet, Najwa Taib, Jerzy Witwinowski, Camille Martin-Gallausiaux, Charlène Cornilleau, Pierre Simon Garcia, Romain Villa, Thibaut Douché, Mariette Matondo, Manuel Majrouh, Robert Reichelt, Dina Grohmann, Patrick Tripp, Sonja-Verena Albers, Guillaume Borrel, Simon K.-M. R. Rittmann, Anna Sartori-Rupp, Richard Wheeler, J. Iñaki Guijarro, Ivo Gomperts Boneca, Simonetta Gribaldo 2026-09-23 doi:10.1038/s41586-026-11028-y
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Providers: Hugging Face · N/A OpenAlex · Citations 0 Publisher · N/A Semantic Scholar · N/A X · N/A Fetched 2026-09-26 14:04:36.224179 UTC

TL;DR - Researchers identified ArmA, a glycosyl hydrolase from the human-gut methanogen Methanobrevibacter smithii, that specifically cleaves methanogen cell walls. Its characterization revealed an unexpected archaeal peptidoglycan structure containing a previously unknown sugar.

  • ArmA is specific to the cell wall of methanogens.
  • The enzyme’s activity enabled structural analysis of archaeal peptidoglycan.
  • The resulting structure includes a sugar that had not previously been identified.
  • The findings advance understanding of cell-wall chemistry in a dominant human gut archaeon.
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