Biochemistry of methane formation

Progress toward an understanding of the biochemistry of methane formation has been slow because of the laborious nature of the mass culture of these strict anaerobes. In our laboratory the past year has been notable in that we can now obtain kilogram quantities of hydrogen-grown cells from a single fermentor. The time is ripe for a serious look at the unknown area of CO2 activation and reduction. 

Much of the early work done on the biochemistry of methane formation supported the position that methane is formed almost exclusively by reduction of carbon dioxide. However, it was shown with methanol and a species of Methanosarcina that less than 1% of the methane is derived from carbon dioxide (Schnellen, 1947 Stadtman and Barker, 1949). According to the mechanism proposed by van Neil for catabolism of acetic acid, all of the acid should be... 

Bloxham, D.P., and Cooper, C.K. (1982) Formation of a polymethylene bis(disulfide) inter-subunit crosslink between cys-281 residues in rabbit muscle glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase using octamethylene bzs-(methane[35]thiosulfonate). Biochemistry 21, 1807. 

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