User:Adeleon
Methanococcus maripaludis
Classification
Higher order taxa:
Archaea; Euryarchaeota; Methanococci; Methanococcales; Methanocaldococcaceae; Methanococcus; Methanococcus maripaludis
Kingdom
Archaea
Species:
Methanococcus maripaludis
Description and significance
The species Methanococcus maripaludis is a member of the third branch of life, Archaea. More specifically, it is a member of the methanogenic archaea. “Methanogens are obligate anaerobes that carry out the reduction of carbon dioxide to methane using molecular hydrogen as the reductant.” This means that this species is a methane producer and it does so by anaerobic processes, utilizing H2 as an electron donor for CO2 reduction to methane.
Methanococcous maripaludis is a significant microbe because of its excellent laboratory growth behavior. This anaerobic archaea is helpful in “development of methods for growth on solid medium, enriching auxotrophic mutants, efficient transformation, and random insertional inactivation of genes.” It is because of these improvements to laboratory techniques that Methanococcus maripaludis is a popular archaebacteria for genetic manipulation.
