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Updated: Nov 25, 2025

Extraction of Cofactor F420 for Analysis of Polyglutamate Tail Length from Methanogenic Pure Cultures and Environmental Samples
Published on: October 14, 2021
Handling methane: a Ni(i) F430-like cofactor derived from VB12 is active in methyl-coenzyme M reductase
1Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. shlchen@bit.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Replacing coenzyme F430, an Ni(i) F430-like cofactor derived from vitamin B12 (F430-B12) is revealed by DFT calculations to be able to catalyze methane formation in methyl-coenzyme M reductase with a barrier of 13.3 kcal mol-1, demonstrating the correctness of the route starting from vitamin B12. The structure-activity relationships of F430 and F430-B12 (especially the roles of the F ring) are discovered and several sources of inspiration promoting the application of F430-B12 are also obtained, coming closer to using F430 chemistry in man-made catalysis.
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