Methanosaeta

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Classification

Domain: Archaea Phylum: Euryarchaeota Class: Methanomicrobia Order: Methanosarcinales Family: Methanosaetaceae Genus: Methanosaeta

[1]

Description

The first culture of Methanosaeta was enriched in 1983 from thermal lake mud by Nozhevnikova et. al.[2] Methanosaeta is a methane producer, that specializes in only using acetate for methane production. Some species of this genus have been isolated as a pure culture [3]. The organism is most closely related to Methanosarcina, a genus of Archea capable of methanogenesis from other carbon sources besides acetate including carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas [4]. In general, members of this genus grow very slowly and can be difficult to culture [5].

Ecology and Significance

These organism are widely distributed across the planet, and have an extremely high affinity for acetate allowing them to thrive even if concentrations are very low. They are commonly found in rice paddies and anaerobic digestors which are common sources of methane. It has been speculated that Methanosaeta is the principle methane producer on earth, thus it is the subject of many studies [6].

References

1) "Methanosaeta." NCBI Taxonomy Browser. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Web. 11 May 2015. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Info&id=2222>.

2) KAMAGATA, Y., & MIKAMI, E. (1991). Isolation and characterization of a novel thermophilic Methanosaeta strain. International journal of systematic bacteriology, 41(2), 191-196.

3) Zinder, S. H., Anguish, T., & Lobo, A. L. (1987). Isolation and characterization of a thermophilic acetotrophic strain of Methanothrix. Archives of microbiology, 146(4), 315-322.

4) Narihiro, T., Terada, T., Ohashi, A., Wu, J. H., Liu, W. T., Araki, N., ... & Sekiguchi, Y. (2009). Quantitative detection of culturable methanogenic archaea abundance in anaerobic treatment systems using the sequence-specific rRNA cleavage method. The ISME journal, 3(5), 522-535.

5) Methanosaeta concilii GP6. (n.d.). Retrieved May 11, 2015, from http://bacmap.wishartlab.com/organisms/1322#biography

6) Smith, K. S., & Ingram-Smith, C. (2007). Methanosaeta, the forgotten methanogen?. Trends in microbiology, 15(4), 150-155.

Author

Page authored by James Kralj, student of Prof. Katherine Mcmahon at University of Wisconsin - Madison.