Methanocaldococcus

Methanocaldococcus formerly known as Methanococcus is a genus of coccoid methanogen archaea.[1] They are all mesophiles, except the thermophilic M. thermolithotrophicus and the hyperthermophilic M. jannaschii. The latter was discovered at the base of a “white smoker” chimney at 21°N on the East Pacific Rise[2] and it was the first archaean genome to be completely sequenced, revealing many novel and eukaryote-like elements.[3]

Methanocaldococcus
Scientific classification
Domain:
Archaea
Kingdom:
Euryarchaeota
Phylum:
Euryarchaeota
Class:
Methanococci
Order:
Methanococcales
Family:
Methanocaldococcaceae
Genus:
Methanocaldococcus
Binomial name
Methanocaldococcus
Whitman 2002
Species

Nomenclature

The name Methanocaldococcus has Latin and Greek roots, methano for methane, caldo for hot, and the Greek kokkos for the spherical shape of the cells. Overall, the name means spherical cell that produces methane at hot temperatures.[4]

Metabolism

All species in Methanocaldococcus are obligate methanogens. They use hydrogen to reduce carbon dioxide. Unlike many other species within Euryarchaeota, they cannot use formate, acetate, methanol or methylamines as substrates.[4]

See also

References
  1. See the NCBI webpage on Methanocaldococcus. Data extracted from the "NCBI taxonomy resources". National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  2. W.J. Jones; et al. (December 1983). "Methanococcus jannaschii sp. nov., an extremely thermophilic methanogen from a submarine hydrothermal vent". Arch. Microbiol. 136 (4): 254–261. doi:10.1007/BF00425213.
  3. C.J. Bult; et al. (August 1996). "Complete genome sequence of the methanogenic archaeon, Methanococcus jannaschii". Science. 273 (5278): 1058–1073. Bibcode:1996Sci...273.1058B. doi:10.1126/science.273.5278.1058. PMID 8688087.
  4. David R. Boone; Richard W. Castenholz, eds. (2012-01-13). Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology. 1 (2 ed.). Nueva York: Springer Science and Business Media. p. 243. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-21609-6. ISBN 978-1-4419-3159-7. Retrieved 2016-07-27.

Further reading

Scientific books

Scientific databases


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