[1][3][4][5][6] Its native habitat is generally in the soil, but the bacteria has been isolated from fresh water sediments and groundwater as well.
[4][6] Since its discovery, M. trichosporium and its soluble monooxygenase enzyme have been studied in detail to see if the bacterium could help in bioremediation treatments.
[8] As a type II methanotroph, M. trichosporium relies on methane as its primary source of carbon and energy.
[10] These enzymes perform the same purpose for cellular function, but sMMO has a much higher specificity compared to pMMO.
This bacterium already grows relatively slowly, so toxic effects of TCE degradation products have made it challenging to use M. trichosporium in bioremediation treatments.