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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2001, p. 4177-4185, Vol. 67, No. 9
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.9.4177-4185.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Detection of Methanotroph Diversity on Roots of Submerged Rice Plants by Molecular Retrieval of pmoA, mmoX, mxaF, and 16S rRNA and Ribosomal DNA, Including pmoA-Based Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Profiling

Hans-Peter Horz, Merlin Tchawa Yimga, and Werner Liesack*

Max-Planck-Institut für terrestrische Mikrobiologie, D-35043 Marburg, Germany

Received 22 December 2000/Accepted 26 June 2001

The diversity of methanotrophic bacteria associated with roots of submerged rice plants was assessed using cultivation-independent techniques. The research focused mainly on the retrieval of pmoA, which encodes the alpha  subunit of the particulate methane monooxygenase. A novel methanotroph-specific community-profiling method was established using the terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) technique. The T-RFLP profiles clearly revealed a more complex root-associated methanotrophic community than did banding patterns obtained by pmoA-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. The comparison of pmoA-based T-RFLP profiles obtained from rice roots and bulk soil of flooded rice microcosms suggested that there was a substantially higher abundance of type I methanotrophs on rice roots than in the bulk soil. These were affiliated to the genera Methylomonas, Methylobacter, Methylococcus, and to a novel type I methanotroph sublineage. By contrast, type II methanotrophs of the Methylocystis-Methylosinus group could be detected with high relative signal intensity in both soil and root compartments. Phylogenetic treeing analyses and a set of substrate-diagnostic amino acid residues provided evidence that a novel pmoA lineage was detected. This branched distinctly from all currently known methanotrophs. To examine whether the retrieval of pmoA provided a complete view of root-associated methanotroph diversity, we also assessed the diversity detectable by recovery of genes coding for subunits of soluble methane monooxygenase (mmoX) and methanol dehydrogenase (mxaF). In addition, both 16S rRNA and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) were retrieved using a PCR primer set specific to type I methanotrophs. The overall methanotroph diversity detected by recovery of mmoX, mxaF, and 16S rRNA and 16S rDNA corresponded well to the diversity detectable by retrieval of pmoA.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Max-Planck-Institut für terrestrische Mikrobiologie, Karl-von-Frisch-Str., D-35043 Marburg, Germany. Phone: 49 (6421) 178 720. Fax: 49 (6421) 178 809. E-mail address: liesack{at}mailer.uni-marburg.de.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2001, p. 4177-4185, Vol. 67, No. 9
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.9.4177-4185.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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Copyright © 2001 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.