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The Methanogenic Bacteria

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The Prokaryotes

Abstract

The methanogenic bacteria are a large and diverse group that is united by three features: (1) they are members of the domain Archaea, or archaebacteria (see Chap. 1), (2) they are strict anaerobes, and (3) they form large quantities of methane as the major product of their energy metabolism. The methanogenic bacteria are related to each other primarily by their mode of energy metabolism but are very diverse with respect to their other properties. Phylogenetically, the methanogens are members of the phylum Euryarchaota, in which they are classified into several classes, i.e., Methanobacteria, Methanococci and Methanomicrobia - each of which embraces several families and genera - as well as Methanopyri. A most updated phylogenetic tree based upon 16S rRNA gene sequences is provided in The All-Species Living Tree (Release LTPs115 from March 2014) (http://www.arb-silva.de/projects/living-tree/). The following text, focusing on metabolic properties, was originally published in The Prokaryotes, Third Edition.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Drs. Terry Miller, Josef Winter, and Tatjana N. Zhilina for their critical reading of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, 30605-2605, Athens, GA, USA

    William B. Whitman

  2. Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, 30602, Athens, GA, USA

    Timothy L. Bowen

  3. Department of Biology, Environmental Science and Engineering, Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, Portland State University, 97207-0751, Portland, OR, USA

    David R. Boone

Authors
  1. William B. Whitman
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  2. Timothy L. Bowen
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  3. David R. Boone
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  3. Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Stephen Lory

  5. Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

  6. Laboratory of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabiano Thompson

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Whitman, W.B., Bowen, T.L., Boone, D.R. (2014). The Methanogenic Bacteria. In: Rosenberg, E., DeLong, E.F., Lory, S., Stackebrandt, E., Thompson, F. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38954-2_407

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