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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY logo International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

Volume 75, Issue 3

sp. nov., a marine methylotrophic methanogen isolated from an anaerobic methane-oxidizing enrichment culture No Access

Abstract

Enrichment cultures of archaea and bacteria performing the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) regularly contain persistent methanogens. Here, we isolated the marine methanogen sp. nov. strain LMO-2 from a long-term AOM enrichment culture from the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Strain LMO-2 is Gram-stain-negative, irregular 0.5–1 µm coccus without flagella. It utilizes a variety of methylated compounds including methanol, monomethylamine, dimethylamine and trimethylamine for growth and methanogenesis. However, it does not grow on formate, acetate, dimethyl sulphate, H/CO, betaine and choline. The optimal conditions for growth were observed within a temperature range of 30–35 °C, a pH range of 7.0–8.0 and a salinity range of 2–4% NaCl. Based on the similarity and phylogeny of the 16S rRNA gene and genomic sequence, strain LMO-2 is classified within the genus . Among the isolated type strains of the genus, strain LMO-2 exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence identity with SLH33 (99.4%). The digital DNA–DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity based on genome sequence showed that strain LMO-2 shared the highest similarity with LMO-1, with values of 27.3% and 83.4%, respectively. In conclusion, we isolated a methylotrophic methanogen from an AOM culture, and the isolated strain LMO-2 represented a novel species of the genus , for which the name sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LMO-2 (=CGMCC 1.18051=KCTC 25774).

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): anaerobic , archaea , marine culture , methane , methanogen and methylotrophy
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF (Award GZB20230406)
    • Principal Award Recipient: LiangLewen
  • China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Award 2023M732206)
    • Principal Award Recipient: LiangLewen
  • The State Key R&D Project of China. (Award 2022YFC2804101)
    • Principal Award Recipient: WangFengping
  • Natural Science Foundation of PR. China (Award 42230401, 42406089)
    • Principal Award Recipient: WangFengpingLiangLewen
© 2025 The Authors
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2025-12-07

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Methanococcoides cohabitans sp. nov., a marine methylotrophic methanogen isolated from an anaerobic methane-oxidizing enrichment culture
Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 75, 006685 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1099/ijsem.0.006685
/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijsem.0.006685
/content/journal/ijsem/10.1099/ijsem.0.006685
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