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Methylobacterium

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The Prokaryotes

Introduction

The genus Methylobacterium is composed of a variety of pink-pigmented facultatively methylotrophic (PPFM) bacteria, which can grow on one-carbon compounds such as formate, formaldehyde and methanol as sole source of carbon and energy as well as on a wide range of multi-carbon growth substrates. Most, but not all, strains can grow on nutrient agar and some can grow on methylated amines. Only one strain has been reported to utilize methane as sole carbon source.

Taxonomy

The first Methylobacterium strain to be described in the literature was isolated by Bassalik (1913) from earthworm contents and named Bacillus extorquens. Although they are common soil and environmental organisms, the PPFM bacteria were not isolated and studied extensively until the 1960s and 1970s, when interest in the study of the one-carbon assimilation pathways common to methylotrophic organisms and in the commercial applicability of these organisms first began.

Prior to 1960, the taxonomy of many of the...

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Authors
  1. Peter N. Green
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Box 196, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0312, USA

    Martin Dworkin Professor Dr. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Medical School, 299 Campus Drive, Fairchild, D039, Stanford, CA, 94305-5124, USA

    Stanley Falkow

  3. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  4. Department of Microbiology, Technical University Munich, 80290, Munich, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

  5. DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

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Green, P.N. (2006). Methylobacterium . In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30745-1_14

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