Organisms use oxygen to produce energy in order to maintain their vital activities.However, it has been suggested that oxygen-independent energy production pathways may exist because tissues with high oxygen consumption such as muscles and highly malignant cancers often become hypoxic.Among them, sulfur molecules have been a promising candidate because they can perform a reaction similar to oxygen molecules and are abundant in foods such as garlic and onions, and in the natural environment such as volcanoes and hot springs.

　So far, Professor Akaike's group has discovered that a large amount of a substance (cysteine ​​persulfide) in which sulfur is added to an amino acid containing sulfur (cysteine) is present in the living body of mammals.Now, he discovered a completely new metabolic pathway of cysteine ​​persulfide in mitochondria and revealed that sulfur metabolites are used in place of oxygen in the process of energy production.

　Professor Akaike and his colleagues, who named this new energy production pathway "sulfur respiration," created mice that could not process the sulfur metabolites required for "sulfur respiration."It was found that this mouse grew significantly worse than a normal mouse.This suggests that "sulfur breathing" may play an extremely important role in life activities.

　In the future, if it becomes possible to freely adjust "sulfur breathing" and increase the amount of energy produced in the body, anti-aging and longevity measures, chronic intractable respiratory and heart diseases such as emphysema and heart failure will be introduced. It is expected to lead to the development of diagnosis, prevention and treatment of emphysema.

Paper information:[Nature Communications] Cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase governs cysteine ​​polysulfidation and mitochondrial bioenergetics