Methanotroph: Methane Consuming Organisms

Methanotrophs are single celled organisms which use methane as their only carbon and energy source.  There are one hundred and thirty known examples of methanotrophic organisms all of which are gram negative areobic eubacteria.  Methanotrophs are known to exists in many different environments but tend to be found in moist or wet areas.  These organisms all use methane as the first step in their major metabolic pathways.  All one hundred and thirty known species produce pMMO and seven strains are known to produce soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO).  Although pMMO is more common, it is significantly less studied than sMMO.  This is due to the difficulty of isolating, working with, and crystallizing integral membrane proteins. 


There has been a significant interest in methanotrophs in the past twenty to thirty years.  This is for two main reasons.  The first is global warming.  Methane is one of the primary greenhouse gases which is building in the atmosphere.  These organisms are shown to have a significant effect on the amount of methane in the atmosphere since they metabolize methane.  The second reason is soil remediation.  It has been established that pMMO is also capable of using other alkanes, alkenes, and aliphatic molecules 

Citations

Lieberman, R.L., Rosenzweig, A.C., Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol. (2004) 39, 147-164
Balasobramanian, R., Rosenzweig, A.C., Acc. Chem. Res. (2007) 40, 573-580