- Methane producing microbes are called Methanogens.
- Methane is the gas and metabolic byproduct of the organisms.
- Methanogens belongs to the archaea domain, they are obligate anaerobes.
- They are very sensitive to oxygen.
- They are commonly present in wetlands and digestive tracts of animals (ruminants, humans)
- Methanogens are cocci (spherical) or bacilli (rod) shaped bacteria.
- They are chemoautotrophic organisms ( using inorganic energy source such as molecular hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, elemental sulfur etc.)
- They reduce the carbon dioxide to give methane (marsh gas) by using hydrogen as electron source:
CO2 + 4 H2 → CH4 + 2H2O
- Formation of methane from microbes called methanogenesis.
Examples of Methanogens :
-Methanobacterium
-Methanobrevibacter
-Methanosarcinae
-Methanococcus
-Methanospirillum
-Methaothermobacter
-Methanothrix
Metabolic Pathway of Methanogens
- Methane is the gas and metabolic byproduct of the organisms.
- Methanogens belongs to the archaea domain, they are obligate anaerobes.
- They are very sensitive to oxygen.
- They are commonly present in wetlands and digestive tracts of animals (ruminants, humans)
- Methanogens are cocci (spherical) or bacilli (rod) shaped bacteria.
- They are chemoautotrophic organisms ( using inorganic energy source such as molecular hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, elemental sulfur etc.)
- They reduce the carbon dioxide to give methane (marsh gas) by using hydrogen as electron source:
CO2 + 4 H2 → CH4 + 2H2O
- Formation of methane from microbes called methanogenesis.
Examples of Methanogens :
-Methanobacterium
-Methanobrevibacter
-Methanosarcinae
-Methanococcus
-Methanospirillum
-Methaothermobacter
-Methanothrix
Metabolic Pathway of Methanogens
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| Source: D Browne, Patrick & Cadillo-Quiroz, Hinsby. (2013). Contribution of Transcriptomics to Systems-Level Understanding of Methanogenic Archaea. Archaea (Vancouver, B.C.). 2013. 586369. 10.1155/2013/586369. |
Overview of the three major known methanogenic pathways in Archaea. Color coding indicates the steps common to all three types (black), unique to the methylotrophic pathway (green), unique to the hydrogenotrophic (or CO2 reducing) pathway (blue), unique to the aceticlastic pathway (red), and shared between hydrogenotrophic and aceticlastic methanogenesis (purple). 2e− represents reducing equivalents, produced or consumed during each reaction. MFR: methanofuran; H4MPT: tetrahydromethanopterin; CoM-SH: coenzyme M; CoB-SH: coenzyme B; CoA-SH: coenzyme A; CoM-S-S-CoB: heterodisulfide of coenzyme M and coenzyme B; ATP: adenosine triphosphate; R: ligand bound to methylated compound that serves as substrate for methylotrophic methanogenesis. *Tetrahydrosarcinapterin is a functional analogue of H4MPT found in the Methanosarcinales order of methanogens.
- Some times the marine methanogens produce methane form acetic acid.
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