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Enrichment and characteristics of mixed methane-oxidizing bacteria from a Chinese coal mine

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Abstract

In methane-rich environments, methane-oxidizing bacteria usually occur predominantly among consortia including other types of microorganisms. In this study, artificial coal bed gas and methane gas were used to enrich mixed methanotrophic cultures from the soil of a coal mine in China, respectively. The changes in microbial community structure and function during the enrichment were examined. The microbial diversity was reduced as the enrichment proceeded, while the capacity for methane oxidation was significantly enhanced by the increased abundance of methanotrophs. The proportion of type II methanotrophs increased greatly from 7.84 % in the sampled soil to about 50 % in the enrichment cultures, due to the increase of methane concentration. After the microbial community of the cultures got stable, Methylomonas and Methylocystis became the dominant type I and type II methanotrophs, while Methylophilus was the prevailing methylotroph. The sequences affiliated with pigment-producing strains, Methylomonas rubra, Hydrogenophaga sp. AH-24, and Flavobacterium cucumis, could explain the orange appearance of the cultures. Comparing the two cultures, the multi-carbon sources in the artificial coal bed gas caused more variety of non-methanotrophic bacteria, but did not help to maintain the diversity or to increase the quantity and activity of methanotrophs. The results could help to understand the succession and interaction of microbial community in a methane-driven ecosystem.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dr. Yin Chen for providing helpful comments for the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of New Energy, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China

    Hao Jiang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Changhong Duan

  3. Technology Transfer Center, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Mingfang Luo

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xin-Hui Xing

  5. Key Laboratory of Industrial Biocatalysis, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xin-Hui Xing

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  1. Hao Jiang
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  2. Changhong Duan
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  4. Xin-Hui Xing
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Correspondence to Xin-Hui Xing.

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This study was funded by the National Science and Technology Support Program (2012BAJ21B01–03).

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Jiang, H., Duan, C., Luo, M. et al. Enrichment and characteristics of mixed methane-oxidizing bacteria from a Chinese coal mine. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 10331–10341 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7738-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7738-7

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