Abstract
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere that has shown nearly tripled increase since the preindustrial era. Paddy fields represent an anthropogenic source contributing about 5% of annual global CH4 emission. It is important to understand the mechanism of CH4 production and emission in order to understand carbon cycling and develop mitigation technology for CH4 emissions. In this chapter, I review the research advances of methanogenesis in association with rice roots with an emphasis on the finding and characterization of Methanocellales methanogens. The importance of root-derived C as a major C source for CH4 production, the identification of Methanocellales as the key methanogens responsible for CH4 production in rice rhizosphere, and the genomic insights into the adaptation of the Methanocellales methanogens to paddy field environments have been discussed. Mechanistic understanding of Methanocellales ecophysiology shall not only shed a light on methanogen evolution and ecology but also pave a way towards the development of biotechnology for control of methane emissions from paddy fields.
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This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (41630857) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0200306).
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Lu, Y. (2019). Metagenomics of Methanogenic Communities in Rice Paddy: The Importance of Methanocella. In: Stams, A., Sousa, D. (eds) Biogenesis of Hydrocarbons. Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78108-2_14
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