Methanosarcina
| Methanosarcina | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Methanosarcina barkeri fusaro | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Archaea |
| Kingdom: | Euryarchaeota |
| Phylum: | Euryarchaeota |
| Class: | Methanomicrobia |
| Order: | Methanosarcinales |
| Family: | Methanosarcinaceae |
| Genus: | Methanosarcina |
| Binomial name | |
|
Methanosarcina Kluyver and van Niel 1936 |
|
| Species | |
Methanosarcina is a genus of euryarchaeote archaea that produce methane. These single-celled organisms are known as anaerobic methanogens that produce methane using all three metabolic pathways for methanogenesis. They live in diverse environments where they can remain safe from the effects of oxygen, whether on the earth's surface, in groundwater, in deep sea vents, and in animal digestive tracts. Methanosarcina grow in colonies.
The amino acid pyrrolysine was first discovered in a Methanosarcina species, M. barkeri. Primitive versions of hemoglobin have been found in M. acetivorans, suggesting the microbe or an ancestor of it may have played a crucial role in the evolution of life on Earth. Species of Methanosarcina are also noted for unusually large genomes. M. acetivorans has the largest known genome of any archaeon.
According to a theory published in 2014, Methanosarcina may have been largely responsible for the worst extinction event in the Earth's history, the Permian–Triassic extinction event. The theory suggests that acquisition of a new metabolic pathway via gene transfer followed by exponential reproduction allowed the microbe to rapidly consume vast deposits of organic carbon in marine sediments, leading to a sharp buildup of methane and carbon dioxide in the Earth's oceans and atmosphere that killed 90% of the world's species. This theory could better explain the observed carbon isotope level in period deposits than other theories such as volcanic activity.
Methanosarcina has been used in waste water treatment since the mid-1980s. Researchers have sought ways to use it as an alternative power source. Methanosarcina strains were grown in single-cell morphology (Sowers et al. 1993) at 35 °C in HS broth medium containing 125 mM methanol plus 40 mM sodium acetate (HS-MA medium).
Methanosarcina may be the only known anaerobic methanogens that produce methane using all three known metabolic pathways for methanogenesis. Methanogenesis is critical to the waste-treatment industry and biologically produced methane also represents an important alternative fuel source. Most methanogens make methane from carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas. Others utilize acetate in the acetoclastic pathway. In addition to these two pathways, species of Methanosarcina can also metabolize methylated one-carbon compounds through methylotrophic methanogenesis. Such one-carbon compounds include methylamines, methanol, and methyl thiols. Only Methanosarcina species possess all three known pathways for methanogenesis, and are capable of utilizing no less than nine methanogenic substrates, including acetate.
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