See text Methanobacterium is a genus of the Methanobacteria class in the Archaea kingdom, which produce methane as a metabolic byproduct.
The evolutionary history of Methanobacterium is still relatively unknown, but methanogens are thought to be some of earth's earliest life forms, with origins dating back over 3.4 billion years.
[4] Methanogens, including Methanobacterium species, belong to the archaea domain, characterized by unique features such as unconventional 16S rRNA sequences, distinct lipid structures, and novel cell wall compositions.
[7] These organisms are prevalent in extreme environments but are also found in more moderate habitats, exhibiting a wide range of growth temperatures from psychrotrophic to hyperthermophilic, and varying salinity preferences from freshwater to saturated brine.
[7] Methanogens are unique among archaea in their adaptability to a broad spectrum of environmental conditions, with a preference for neutral to moderately alkaline pH values.
[7] Taxonomically, methanogens are classified into 25 genera, distributed across 12 families and five orders, highlighting the substantial phenotypic and genotypic diversity within this group.
[7] This taxonomic diversity suggests that methanogenesis, the metabolic pathway through which methanogens produce methane, is an ancient and widespread trait.
[15] These genes, which are used for their central metabolism and their pseudomurein cell wall, propose that the species is capable of inhibition by the small molecule inhibitor and vaccine.
[16] Methanobacterium are normally isolated from natural oxygen deficient environments such as, freshwater, marine sediments, wet soils, the rumen and the intestines of animals, humans, and insects.
[16] Through molecular findings of the 16S rRNA and mcrA gene, which encodes the methyl coenzyme M reductase on the alpha subunit, shows that there are additional unidentified methanogens that exist in other ecosystems.
[17] Some Methanobacterium species can even be found in large clusters or aggregates which consist of long intertwined chains of individual microbes.
It is a process involving three different kinds of carbon dioxide reduction, which ultimately lead to the production of methane.
[7] The cycling substrates can be arranged into 3 groups based on the whether the autotrophic carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction was with hydrogen gas (H2), formate (CH2O2), or secondary alcohols.
[3] Some members of this genus can use formate to reduce methane; others live exclusively through the reduction of carbon dioxide with hydrogen.
[4] This mesophilic temperature range indicates that Methanobacterium organisms are adapted to moderate environmental conditions, neither extremely hot nor cold.
[23] This temperature preference allows them to inhabit a variety of anaerobic environments, including soil, sediments, and animal digestive tracts, where conditions often fall within this mesophilic range.
[2] They can be found in diverse habitats such as soil, wetlands, sediment layers, sewage treatment plants, and the gastrointestinal tracts of animals.
[4] Within these environments, Methanobacterium species play crucial roles in anaerobic microbial ecosystems, contributing to processes like organic matter decomposition via methane production through the methanogenesis pathway.
[25] The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature[26] and the National Center for Biotechnology Information.