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HORBEC are protein complexes involved in the regulation of redox balance and energy conservation. The authors develop a bioinformatic tool for HORBEC annotation in bacterial and archaeal genomes and r...

日本の科学技術政策における「選択と集中」は、2001年の第2期科学技術基本計画から本格導入され、2004年の国立大学法人化を契機に加速した。この政策転換と日本の学術論文数減少には、時系列的な対応関係と因果メカニズムを示唆する複数のエビデンスが存在する。本レポートでは、差の差分析（DiD）等の因果推論手法を用いた学術研究を中心に、政策効果の実証的検証状況を整理する。日本は主要国で唯一、科学論文の絶対...

Methane-consuming microbial partners use redox conductors to pass electrons.

Conductive particles are abundant in coastal sediments, yet the organisms and pathways that use them for methane production remain unclear. We applied long-read, genome-resolved metagenomics to a sedi...

Methanogenic archaea, including Methanosarcina, play crucial roles in biotechnology and climate processes, impacting wastewater treatment, carbon capture, and greenhouse gas emissions. Methanosarcina ...

Methanogenic archaea generate two-thirds of Earths methane. Some reduce CO2 by drawing electrons directly from solid substrates. Yet many, including Methanosarcina barkeri, lack the multiheme cytochromes (MHCs), that drive extracellular electron transfer (EET) in other microbes. Here we show that at growth onset, M. barkeri releases an extracellular nucleic-acid pool dominated by short RNAs (~80%) that self-assemble into G-quadruplexes (G4) on the cell surface. Addition of synthetic G4-RNA doubles cathodic methane production, whereas nuclease digestion abolishes EET. Neither treatment affected growth on soluble substrates. Thus, G4-RNA forms an electron conduit enabling cathodic EET in this MHC-deficient archaeon. The discovery broadens the inventory of biological wiring and hints that nucleic-acid electronics pre-date protein redox systems, with ramifications for early-Earth metabolism, bioenergy and living electronics. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Novo Nordisk Foundation, https://ror.org/04txyc737, NNF21OC0067353 European Research Council, 101045149