Methanobacterium ruminantium

Corynebacterium and Bhodopseudomonas Crithidiafasciculata Methanobacterium arbophilicum Methanobacteriumformicicum Methanobacterium ruminantium... 

Growth of Methanobrevibacter (formerly Methanobacterium ruminantium) on H2/CO2 is dependent on exogenous coenzyme M (H-S-CoM) as a vitamin [253]. The uptake of... 

Figure J. Growth response of strain Ml, a rumen strain of Methanobacterium ruminantium, and strain PS, a sludge strain of M. ruminantium, to ammonia. The basal medium for strain Ml was the basal medium (Table II) plus 1.33 mM glycine, 0.95 mM i.-arginine, 1.34 mM la-methionine, 0.48 mM i.-histidine, and 1.68 mM la-threonine. The basal medium for strain PS was that indicated in Table II but with Dowex 50-treated rumen fluid and volatile acids other than acetate deleted. Ammonia was added as (NHi SOf, and other conditions were as indicated in...

Figure 2. Ammonia utilized by strain Ml, Methanobacterium ruminantium, in basal medium (Table II) with 2 mM (NH )2SO, ...

To date only five species of methane bacteria have been obtained in pure culture. M. vanniellii (5), Methanohacterium ruminantium (7), Methanobacterium mobilis (28), and Methanobacterium formicicum (21) grow on formate and ferment H2. The last species also ferments CO. The methanogenic symbiont of M. omelianskii, probably a variety of M. formicicum (29) grows only on H2 (16). Methanosarcina barkeri is iso-... 

In 1958 Smith and Hungate (17) described Methanobacterium rumi-nantium, which was present in large numbers in rumen content, and although detailed nutritional studies were not done, they showed that it required unknown growth factors which were present in rumen fluid but not found in many other nutritious materials such as yeast extract or peptones. In more recent studies, we confirmed and extended the nutritional information on M. ruminantium 23), and others have shown that other species require organic growth factors different from those required as energy source (16, 24). 

The remainder of this paper discusses the nutritional requirements of three strains of methane bacteria grown with H2-CO2 as energy source —i.e., M. ruminantium strains isolated from sludge and the rumen and Methanobacterium strain MOH isolated from M. omelianskii 14). The latter is believed to be related closely to M. formicicum, except that it does not ferment formate (25). M. formicicum and M. ruminantium utilize... 

As with M. ruminantium, Methanobacterium strain MOH can utilize neither peptides nor amino acids as a nitrogen source replacing NH4 (Figures 5 and 7). NH4 utilization is essentially the same (Figure 8) when NH4 is the nitrogen source or when rumen fluid, amino acids, yeast extract, and Trypticase are present in the medium as complex sources of nitrogen that would be utilized in place of NH4 by most heterotrophic bacteria other than some rumen carbohydrate-fermenting anaerobes (11). 

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