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Syntrophy in Methanogenic Degradation

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(Endo)symbiotic Methanogenic Archaea

Part of the book series: Microbiology Monographs ((MICROMONO,volume 19))

Abstract

This chapter deals with microbial communities of bacteria and archaea that closely cooperate in methanogenic degradation and perform metabolic functions in this community that neither one of them could carry out alone. The methanogenic degradation of fatty acids, alcohols, most aromatic compounds, amino acids, and others is performed in partnership between fermenting bacteria and methanogenic archaea. The energy available in these processes is very small, attributing only fractions of an ATP unit per reaction run to every partner. The biochemical strategies taken include in most cases reactions of substrate-level phosphorylation combined with various kinds of reversed electron transport systems in which part of the gained ATP is reinvested into thermodynamically unfavourable electron transport processes. Altogether, these systems represent fascinating examples of energy efficiency at the lowermost energy level that allows microbial life.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, Dreijenplein 10, 6703 HB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Petra Worm, Caroline M. Plugge & Alfons J. M. Stams

  2. Microbial Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, 78457, Konstanz, Germany

    Nicolai Müller & Bernhard Schink

Authors
  1. Petra Worm
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  2. Nicolai Müller
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  3. Caroline M. Plugge
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  4. Alfons J. M. Stams
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  5. Bernhard Schink
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Correspondence to Bernhard Schink .

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  1. Faculty of Science, University of Nijmegen, POB 9010, Nijmegen, 6500 GL, Netherlands

    Johannes H.P. Hackstein

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Worm, P., Müller, N., Plugge, C.M., Stams, A.J.M., Schink, B. (2010). Syntrophy in Methanogenic Degradation. In: Hackstein, J. (eds) (Endo)symbiotic Methanogenic Archaea. Microbiology Monographs, vol 19. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13615-3_9

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