The methane fermentations of acetate and methanol.

the superscripts denoting separate isotopic labels. Since Pine and Barker (1956) established that the methyl group of acetate is transferred intact during its incorporation into methane, we wished to determine whether methanol could be metabolized analogously. The deuterium incorporation procedure previously employed for the study of the acetate fermentation was used to establish that all three hydrogen atoms attached to the carbon of methanol remained attached during methane formation. In addition, we have investigated the relationship between methanol and acetate utilization, and discuss a possible common intermediary pathway.