Sustaining Life on Planet Earth: Metalloenzymes Mastering Dioxygen and Other Chewy Gases

MILS-15 provides an up-to-date review of the metalloenzymes involved in the activation, production, and conversion of molecular oxygen as well as the functionalization of the chemically inert gases methane and ammonia. Found either in aerobes (humans, animals, plants, microorganisms) or in anaerobes (so-called “impossible bacteria”) these enzymes employ preferentially iron and copper at their active sites, in order to conserve energy by redox-driven proton pumps, to convert methane to methanol,