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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 1999, p. 3312-3318, Vol. 65, No. 8
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Characterization of Methanotrophic Bacterial Populations in Soils Showing Atmospheric Methane Uptake

Andrew J. Holmes,1,2 Peter Roslev,3 Ian R. McDonald,1 Niels Iversen,3 Kaj Henriksen,3 and J. Colin Murrell1,*

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom1; Commonwealth Key Centre for Biodiversity and Bioresources, School of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, 2109, Australia2; and Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Aalborg University, DK-9000 Aalborg, Denmark3

Received 25 January 1999/Accepted 10 May 1999

The global methane cycle includes both terrestrial and atmospheric processes and may contribute to feedback regulation of the climate. Most oxic soils are a net sink for methane, and these soils consume approximately 20 to 60 Tg of methane per year. The soil sink for atmospheric methane is microbially mediated and sensitive to disturbance. A decrease in the capacity of this sink may have contributed to the ~1% · year-1 increase in the atmospheric methane level in this century. The organisms responsible for methane uptake by soils (the atmospheric methane sink) are not known, and factors that influence the activity of these organisms are poorly understood. In this study the soil methane-oxidizing population was characterized by both labelling soil microbiota with 14CH4 and analyzing a total soil monooxygenase gene library. Comparative analyses of [14C]phospholipid ester-linked fatty acid profiles performed with representative methane-oxidizing bacteria revealed that the soil sink for atmospheric methane consists of an unknown group of methanotrophic bacteria that exhibit some similarity to type II methanotrophs. An analysis of monooxygenase gene libraries from the same soil samples indicated that an unknown group of bacteria belonging to the alpha  subclass of the class Proteobacteria was present; these organisms were only distantly related to extant methane-oxidizing strains. Studies on factors that affect the activity, population dynamics, and contribution to global methane flux of "atmospheric methane oxidizers" should be greatly facilitated by use of biomarkers identified in this study.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 1203 523553. Fax: 44 1203 523568. E-mail: cm{at}dna.bio.warwick.ac.uk.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 1999, p. 3312-3318, Vol. 65, No. 8
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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