{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T06:05:14Z","timestamp":1790661914095,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790640000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Methanogenic archaea are key syntrophic partners in animal and human guts. However, the molecular basis of physical and functional interactions of methanogens with other cells remains poorly understood. Adhesin-like proteins (ALPs) are abundant, unusually large, and repeat-rich surface proteins and are potential prime candidates for mediating cell\u2013cell interactions, however, due to poor characterization, ALPs often remain neglected in annotations of genomes and large-scale datasets. Here, we combined structure-guided analysis with comparative genomics to map ALP domain architectures across\n                    <jats:italic>Methanobacteriales<\/jats:italic>\n                    species, with emphasis on intestinal and rumen lineages. We curated predicted ALP structures and manually delineated domain boundaries to build a reference set encompassing ABD, RBH, membrane-anchoring domains (MAD), and miscellaneous accessory domains. Leveraging on a novel approach for ALP domain annotations, we generate ALP annotations and domain architectures for 17\n                    <jats:italic>Methanobacteriales<\/jats:italic>\n                    species without reliance on primary-sequence homology. Applying this approach to strains of\n                    <jats:italic>Methanobrevibacter smithii<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>Methanobrevibacter intestini<\/jats:italic>\n                    , we assembled species-level \u201cadhesiomes\u201d and assessed conservation patterns of ALPs. Network analysis indicated that ALPs are more commonly shared among strains within a species than between species, suggesting species-specific adhesin repertoires. While total ALP counts differed significantly between\n                    <jats:italic>M. smithii<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>M. intestini<\/jats:italic>\n                    (Wilcoxon rank-sum\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u202f=\u202f0.00295), median ALP lengths did not (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u202f=\u202f0.606). Our results provide a comprehensive overview of the ALP domain architectures in\n                    <jats:italic>Methanobacteriales<\/jats:italic>\n                    species and reveals species-specific adhesiomes that likely contribute to niche adaptation and syntrophic partnerships in gut ecosystems.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1897686","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T05:50:20Z","timestamp":1790661020000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Comparative analysis of adhesin-like proteins from Methanobacteriales species"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Abel","family":"Tan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory Limited, National University of Singapore","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anjali Bansal","family":"Gupta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory Limited, National University of Singapore","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shuan","family":"Er","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory Limited, National University of Singapore","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Henning","family":"Seedorf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory Limited, National University of Singapore","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]},{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore","place":["Singapore, Singapore"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5093","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-025-60272-9","article-title":"Biogenesis of DNA-carrying extracellular vesicles by the dominant human gut methanogenic archaeon","volume":"16","author":"Baquero","year":"2025","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2059","DOI":"10.1038\/ismej.2017.72","article-title":"Genomics and metagenomics of trimethylamine-utilizing Archaea in the human gut microbiome","volume":"11","author":"Borrel","year":"2017","journal-title":"ISME J."},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00406313","article-title":"Methanobacillus omelianskii, a symbiotic association of two species of bacteria","volume":"59","author":"Bryant","year":"1967","journal-title":"Arch. Mikrobiol."},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"756","DOI":"10.1128\/aem.34.6.756-759.1977","article-title":"Influence of CH4 production by Methanobacterium ruminantium on the fermentation of glucose and lactate by Selenomonas ruminantium","volume":"34","author":"Chen","year":"1977","journal-title":"Appl. Environ. 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Bacteriol."},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6044","DOI":"10.1038\/s41467-022-33782-z","article-title":"Genome-centric analysis of short and long read metagenomes reveals uncharacterized microbiome diversity in southeast Asians","volume":"13","author":"Gounot","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1463715","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2024.1463715","article-title":"Structural and functional insights from the sequences and complex domain architecture of adhesin-like proteins from Methanobrevibacter smithii and Methanosphaera stadtmanae","volume":"15","author":"Gupta","year":"2024","journal-title":"Front. Microbiol."},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"772","DOI":"10.1093\/molbev\/mst010","article-title":"MAFFT multiple sequence alignment software version 7: improvements in performance and usability","volume":"30","author":"Katoh","year":"2013","journal-title":"Mol. Biol. Evol."},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e8926","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0008926","article-title":"The genome sequence of the rumen methanogen Methanobrevibacter ruminantium reveals new possibilities for controlling ruminant methane emissions","volume":"5","author":"Leahy","year":"2010","journal-title":"PLoS One"},{"key":"ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.4056\/sigs.3977691","article-title":"The complete genome sequence of Methanobrevibacter sp. AbM4","volume":"8","author":"Leahy","year":"2013","journal-title":"Stand. 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Microbiol."},{"key":"ref30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4615-2391-8_4","volume-title":"Methanogenesis: Ecology, Physiology, Biochemistry & Genetics","author":"Zinder","year":"1993"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Microbiology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1897686\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T05:50:21Z","timestamp":1790661021000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1897686\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]]},"references-count":30,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1897686"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1897686","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-302X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-302X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]]},"article-number":"1897686"}}