SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM METHANOBACTERIA (BOONE 2001)
| ARCHAEA> EURYARCHAEOTA> METHANOBACTERIA |
PHYLUM METHANOBACTERIA LINKS
| The following description of the Methanobacteria came from Brock et al. (1994), Margulis and Schwartz (1998), Garrity et al. (2001 and 2003), and Black (2002). |
- I. SYNONYMS: Methanogenic bacteria; methanogens.
- II. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:
- A. Structure
- Cell Form: Variable; cocci (text with tooltip) A coccus (cocci, pl.) is a spherical cell form. , rods (text with tooltip) A rod is an elongate cell form such that it has distinct ends (called poles). and spirals (text with tooltip) A spiral is a cell form that is a cork-screw shaped rod. .
- Cell Wall: Archaebacterial; gram+ (text with tooltip) A Gram + cell retains the blue-black crystal-violet color following destaining with alcohol during the Gram Stain procedure. or gram- (text with tooltip) A Gram - cell loses the blue-black crystal-violet color following destaining with alcohol during the Gram Stain procedure. Then, it takes on the color of the counterstain, typically iodine. .
- Motility: Non-motile.
- B. Physiology
- O2 Tolerance: Obligate anaerobes (text with tooltip) An obligate anaerobe is a cell that is poisoned in the presence of free oxygen. .
- Substrates: Reduce CO2 with H2; formic acid, acetic acid and methanol can also serve as H-donors.
- Products: Methane.
- C. Other: Have a unique type of t-RNA and characteristic co-enzymes (M and F420).
- D. Ecology: Found in aquatic sediments and in the digestive tracts of animals. Some require very high temperatures. For example, Methanococcus jannaschii has a thermal optimum of 85C.
- A. Structure
| LITERATURE CITED Black, J. G. 2002. Microbiology, Principles and Explorations. 5th ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York. Gao, B. and R. S. Gupta. 2007. Phylogenetic analysis of proteins that are distinctive of Archaea and its main subgroups and the origin of methanogenesis. BMC Genomics. 8:86. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/8/86. Garrity, G. M., M. Winters, and D. Searles. 2001. Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology. 2nd ed. Springer-Verlag. New York. Garrity, G. M., J. A. Bell, and T. G. Lilburn. 2003. Taxonomic Outline of the Prokaryotes. Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. 2nd edition. Release 4.0. Springer-Verlag. New York. pp. 1-397. Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1988. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 2nd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Co. New York. Woese, C. R. and G. E. Fox. 1977. Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 74:5088-5090. Woese, C. R., O. Kandler, and M. L. Wheelis. 1990. Towards a natural system of organisms: Proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 87: 4576-4579. |
| By Jack R. Holt. Last revised: 02/06/2012 |
