Cofactor F420 tail length distribution in different environmental samples

Abstract

Cofactor F420 is an electron carrier playing a crucial role in a variety of microorganisms during redox reactions of the primary and secondary metabolism due to its low redox potential and thus arouses increasing interest. In this study, cofactor F420 glutamyl tail length spectra in various habitats like manure, compost, soil, and digester sludge samples and their respective microbial communities were investigated using high performance liquid chromatography and an amplicon sequencing approach A previous in-silico study was used to identify F420 producing microorganisms. The highest concentration of cofactor F420 could be achieved in the horse manure, digester sludge, and mixed manure samples, which was approximately 100-fold higher than in all the other samples. The high content of the cofactor in the samples with high O2 availability pointed to the important role of the cofactor not only in redox reactions of anaerobic but also for aerobic microorganisms and indicated its ubiquitous character. The most abundant derivate was F420-3 comprising the largest part of the cofactor derivates in seven out of ten samples. The high abundance of F420-3 in samples with distinct properties (e.g. O2 and H2O availability) showed its important role in redox reactions of the primary and secondary metabolism among prokaryotes.

Keywords

• Environmental habitat
• Microbial community
• F420 producing microorganism