AEM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 19 January 2007

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pester, M. Articles by Brune, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Pester, M. Articles by Brune, A. Agricola Articles by Pester, M. Articles by Brune, A.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.02190-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Methane oxidation in termite hindguts - absence of evidence and evidence of absence

Michael Pester, Anne Tholen, Michael W. Friedrich, and Andreas Brune^*

Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Department of Biogeochemistry, Karl-von-Frisch-Strasse, 35043 Marburg, Germany

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: brune{at}mpi-marburg.mpg.de.

A steep oxygen gradient and the presence of methane render the hindgut internal periphery of termites a potential habitat for aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria. However, methane emissions of various termites increased - if at all - only slightly when exposed to an anoxic (nitrogen) atmosphere, and ¹⁴CH₄ added to the air headspace over live termites was not converted to ¹⁴CO₂. Evidence for the absence of methane oxidation in living termites was corroborated by the failure to detect pmoA, the marker gene for particulate methane monooxygenase, in hindgut DNA extracts of all termites investigated. This adds robustness to our concept of the degradation network in the termite hindgut and eliminates the gut itself as a potential sink of this important greenhouse gas.