Progresses in the classification and mechanism of methane-oxidizing bacteria
CAI Chaoyang, HE Zhanfei, HU Baolan
Institute of Environmental Ecological Engineering, Department of Environment Engineering, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Abstract Methane (CH4) as a colorless, odorless organic gas, is one of the most simple hydrocarbons and widely distributed in environment. As the second most important greenhouse gas, only following carbon dioxide, methane contributes a lot to the global warming. Methane-oxidizing bacteria are a kind of microorganisms who directly use methane as carbon and energy sources. Because they can convert methane into carbon dioxide and mitigate the global greenhouse effect, methane-oxidizing bacteria are getting more and more people’s attention. Methane-oxidizing bacteria not only reduce methane emissions in the soil, but also uptake the methane in the gas phase of the unsaturated soil. They are important to mitigate the global greenhouse effect. According to whether can uptake oxygen in environment as electron acceptor or not, methane-oxidizing bacteria can be divided into aerobic and anaerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria. Aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria are gram-negative bacteria, which use methane as carbon and energy source, have been discovered as early as 1906. Because of the potential value of aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria in practice production, scientists have made extensive research about it in the past 40 years. At the same time, aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria can reduce soil methane emissions and uptake the methane in the atmosphere, playing an important role in global carbon cycle. Because anaerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria’s doubling time is long, research progress about it is slow. Cellular component of different kinds of methane-oxidizing bacteria is different, and they have different enzymes and C1 metabolic pathways. The center metabolic mechanism of C1 component determines the competition ability of different bacteria in different environment. The main center metabolic mechanism can be divided into three categories: ribulose monophosphate cycle, serine cycle, and the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle.
CAI Chaoyang, HE Zhanfei, HU Baolan. Progresses in the classification and mechanism of methane-oxidizing bacteria. Journal of Zhejiang University (Agriculture and Life Sciences), 2016, 42(3): 273-281.
