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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2003, p. 1680-1686, Vol. 69, No. 3
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.3.1680-1686.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Biogeochemical Evidence that Thermophilic Archaea Mediate the Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane

Stefan Schouten,1* Stuart G. Wakeham,2 Ellen C. Hopmans,1 and Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté1

Department of Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, The Netherlands,1 Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Savannah, Georgia2

Received 17 June 2002/ Accepted 26 November 2002

Distributions and isotopic analyses of lipids from sediment cores at a hydrothermally active site in the Guaymas Basin with a steep sedimentary temperature gradient revealed the presence of archaea that oxidize methane anaerobically. The presence of strongly 13C-depleted lipids at greater depths in the sediments suggests that microbes involved in anaerobic oxidation of methane are present and presumably active at environmental temperatures of >30°C, indicating that this process can occur not only at cold seeps but also at hydrothermal sites. The distribution of the membrane tetraether lipids of the methanotrophic archaea shows that these organisms have adapted their membrane composition to these high environmental temperatures.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Marine Biogeochemistry & Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands. Phone: 31 222 369565. Fax: 31 222 319674. E-mail: schouten{at}nioz.nl.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2003, p. 1680-1686, Vol. 69, No. 3
0099-2240/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.69.3.1680-1686.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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