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The Methanogenic Bacteria

  • Chapter
The Prokaryotes

Abstract

The methanogenic bacteria are unique among pro-karyotes because they produce a hydrocarbon, methane, as a major product of anaerobic metabolism. This physiological property was proposed in 1956 by H. A. Barker as the main taxonomic characteristic of a morphologically diverse group of bacteria which he termed the Methanobacteriaceae. The taxonomy of this physiological family has been obfuscated by the difficulty of obtaining members in pure culture. Consequently, various species were named on the basis of the types of substrates converted to methane by “purified” (i.e., enrichment) cultures containing a predominant morphological type suspected of methanogenesis. Only three species, Methanobacterium formicicum, Methano-coccus vannielii, and Methanosarcina barkeri, were isolated in axenic culture by the time of Barker’s review of these organisms (Barker, 1956).

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Authors
  1. Robert A. Mah
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  2. Michael R. Smith
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bacteriology, University of California, 95616, Davis, California, USA

    Mortimer P. Starr

  2. Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, Universität Bayreuth, 8580, Bayreuth, Federal Republic of Germany

    Heinz Stolp

  3. Institut für Mikrobiologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, 5300, Bonn 1, Federal Republic of Germany

    Hans G. Trüper

  4. Bacteriology Division, Centers for Disease Control, 30333, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Albert Balows

  5. Institut für Mikrobiologie, Universität Göttingen, 3400, Göttingen, Federal Republic of Germany

    Hans G. Schlegel

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Mah, R.A., Smith, M.R. (1981). The Methanogenic Bacteria. In: Starr, M.P., Stolp, H., Trüper, H.G., Balows, A., Schlegel, H.G. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-13187-9_76

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-13187-9_76

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