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The Family Methanospirillaceae

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The Prokaryotes

Abstract

The family Methanospirillaceae consists of a single genus: Methanospirillum. As of December 2013, this genus contained two species, descriptions of two more species being in press. This family of mesophilic and neutrophilic methanogens belongs to the order Methanomicrobiales. The members are long slender curved rods surrounded by an S-layer. Cells form long filaments, kept together by a common sheath composed of stacked hoops. Within the filaments, the individual cells are separated by complex spacer plugs composed of proteinaceous disks that span the sheath and consist of paracrystalline layers sandwiched between amorphous layers of unknown composition. Methanogenesis from H2/CO2 is the main energy-generating process. Some species can also use formate, and secondary alcohols + CO2 are used by a few strains. Methanospirillaceae are found in anaerobic waste treatment systems and in wetland soils.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Aharon Oren

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  1. Aharon Oren
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Correspondence to Aharon Oren .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  3. Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Stephen Lory

  5. Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

  6. Laboratory of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabiano Thompson

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Oren, A. (2014). The Family Methanospirillaceae . In: Rosenberg, E., DeLong, E.F., Lory, S., Stackebrandt, E., Thompson, F. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38954-2_316

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