Members of the methanotrophic genus Methylomarinum inhabit inland mud pots

Danielle T Fradet; Patricia L Tavormina; Victoria J Orphan

doi:10.7717/peerj.2116

Members of the methanotrophic genus Methylomarinum inhabit inland mud pots

PeerJ. 2016 Jul 12:4:e2116. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2116. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Danielle T Fradet¹, Patricia L Tavormina², Victoria J Orphan²

Affiliations

¹ Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy , La Canada Flintridge, CA , United States.
² Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA , United States.

Abstract

Proteobacteria capable of converting the greenhouse gas methane to biomass, energy, and carbon dioxide represent a small but important sink in global methane inventories. Currently, 23 genera of methane oxidizing (methanotrophic) proteobacteria have been described, although many are represented by only a single validly described species. Here we describe a new methanotrophic isolate that shares phenotypic characteristics and phylogenetic relatedness with the marine methanotroph Methylomarinum vadi. However, the new isolate derives from a terrestrial saline mud pot at the northern terminus of the Eastern Pacific Rise (EPR). This new cultivar expands our knowledge of the ecology of Methylomarinum, ultimately towards a fuller understanding of the role of this genus in global methane cycling.

Keywords: Bacterial methane oxidizers; Davis-Schrimpf seep field; Eastern Pacific Rise; Methanotroph; Microbial ecology; pmoA.

Grants and funding

Funding for this work was provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, in a grant to Victoria J. Orphan (grant no. GBMF3780). This research was additionally supported by a grant from the NASA Astrobiology Institute (Award # NNA13AA92A). This is NAI-Life Underground Publication Number 083. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.