Syntrophy differs from symbiosis in a way that syntrophic relationship is primarily based on closely linked metabolic interactions to maintain thermodynamically favorable lifestyle in a given environment.
Individuals of organism S are observed as obligate anaerobic bacteria that use ethanol as an electron donor, whereas M.o.H are methanogens that oxidize hydrogen gas to produce methane.
[14][22] Some anaerobic fermenting microbes in the rumen (and other gastrointestinal tracts) are capable of degrading organic matter to short chain fatty acids, and hydrogen.
[24] In acetogenesis processes, these products are oxidized to acetate and H2 by obligated proton reducing bacteria in syntrophic relationship with methanogenic archaea as low H2 partial pressure is essential for acetogenic reactions to be thermodynamically favorable (ΔG < 0).
[25] Syntrophic microbial food webs play an integral role in bioremediation especially in environments contaminated with crude oil and petrol.
Environmental contamination with oil is of high ecological importance and can be effectively mediated through syntrophic degradation by complete mineralization of alkane, aliphatic and hydrocarbon chains.
[28] Microbes growing poorly on amino acid substrates alanine, aspartate, serine, leucine, valine, and glycine can have their rate of growth dramatically increased by syntrophic H2 scavengers.
These scavengers, like Methanospirillum and Acetobacterium, metabolize the H2 waste produced during amino acid breakdown, preventing a toxic build-up.
[28] Amino acid fermenting anaerobes such as Clostridium species, Peptostreptococcus asacchaarolyticus, Acidaminococcus fermentans were known to breakdown amino acids like glutamate with the help of hydrogen scavenging methanogenic partners without going through the usual Stickland fermentation pathway[14][28] Effective syntrophic cooperation between propionate oxidizing bacteria, acetate oxidizing bacteria and H2/acetate consuming methanogens is necessary to successfully carryout anaerobic digestion to produce biomethane[4][18]