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Genetics and Molecular Biology of Anaerobic Bacteria pp 54–63Cite as

Molecular Biology of the Acetoclastic Methanogen Methanothrix soehngenii

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Abstract

Acetate forms about 70% of the methanogenic substrates in anaerobic digestors (Smith and Mah, 1966; Gujer and Zehnder, 1983; Zinder et al., 1984; Fukuzaki et al., 1990) and is the only dicarbon substrate that methanogenic bacteria can degrade completely (Thauer et al., 1989). The ability to catabolize acetate to methane is restricted to only two genera, Methanosarcina and Methanothrix, of the Kingdom Euryarchaeota, which belongs to the archaeal domain (Woese et al., 1990). Methanosarcina spp. are generalistic organisms, capable of degrading a variety of substrates like H2/CO2, methanol, methylamines, and acetate (Hutten et al., 1980; Kenealy and Zeikus, 1982; Krzycki et al., 1982; Smith and Mah, 1980). In contrast, Methanothrix sp. is a specialist that can use only acetate as its carbon and energy source (Huser et al., 1982; Zehnder et al., 1980).

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Authors
  1. Rik I. L. Eggen
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  2. Willem M. de Vos
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  1. Unité des Anaérobies, Institut Pasteur, 75724, Paris, France

    Madaleine Sebald

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Eggen, R.I.L., de Vos, W.M. (1993). Molecular Biology of the Acetoclastic Methanogen Methanothrix soehngenii . In: Sebald, M. (eds) Genetics and Molecular Biology of Anaerobic Bacteria. Brock/Springer Series in Contemporary Bioscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7087-5_4

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