The response of methanogens to thawing permafrost is an important factor for the global greenhouse gas budget. We tracked methanogenic community structure, activity, and abundance along the degradation of sub-Arctic palsa peatland permafrost. We observed the development of pronounced methane production, release, and abundance of functional (mcrA) methanogenic gene numbers following the transiti...

Wastewater containing high concentrations of salt, are difficult to treat using biological treatment processes, especially anaerobic processes. Limited information is available on methanogenic activity in saline environments. The objective of this research was to investigate the activity of halophilic methanogens, digester sludge and a mixed culture of halophilic and methanogenic bacteria, at v...

Biologically produced methane (CH₄) from anaerobic digesters is a renewable alternative to fossil fuels, but digester failure can be a serious problem. Monitoring the microbial community within the digester could provide valuable information about process stability because this technology is dependent upon the metabolic processes of microorganisms. A healthy methanogenic community is critical f...

Accumulation of substrate onto the biomass was quantified under steady-state and shock conditions in a fixed bed reactor fed with an oleic acid-based synthetic effluent. The accumulation of substrate onto the sludge was more dependent on oleic acid concentration than on oleic acid loading rate and decreased the acetogenic, acetoclastic and hydrogenophilic activity. However, even when the methan...

Biomass from two full-scale anaerobic digester treating different wastes regarding to nitrogen concentrations and operating under different hydraulic retention time was characterized by methanogenic batch activity assays at different ammonia concentrations. Two several different patterns regarding activity and microbial parameters was demonstrated depending on operational conditions and methano...

Eighty patients with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes (ages 0-39 years) were consecutively recruited by the Belgian Diabetes Registry. Sera obtained at clinically diagnosed onset (i.e., before start of insulin therapy or within 7 days of initial treatment) were analyzed for total 1gM concentrations and for 1gM binding to fixed rat splenocytes (lgM-LyAb) and permeabilized rat islet cells (lgM...

Methane production by intestinal methanogenic Archaea and their community structure were compared among phylogenetic lineages of millipedes. Tropical and temperate millipedes of 35 species and 17 families were investigated. Species that emitted methane were mostly in the juliform orders Julida, Spirobolida, and Spirostreptida. The irregular phylogenetic distribution of methane production correl...

Phylogenetic and stable-isotope analyses implicated two methanogen-like archaeal groups, ANME-1 and ANME-2, as key participants in the process of anaerobic methane oxidation. Although nothing is known about anaerobic methane oxidation at the molecular level, the evolutionary relationship between methane-oxidizing archaea (MOA) and methanogenic archaea raises the possibility that MOA have co-opt...

Methanogenic inhibitors are often used to study methanogenesis in complex microbial communities or inhibit methanogens in the gastrointestinal tract of livestock. However, the resulting structural and functional changes in archaeal and bacterial communities are poorly understood. We characterized microbial community structure and activity in mesocosms seeded with cow dung and municipal wastewat...

Recently described and characterized Bradyrhizobium japonicum glycine:[carrier protein] ligase 1 (Bj Gly:CP ligase 1), a homologue of methanogenic type seryl-tRNA synthetase (SerRS) is an intriguing enzyme whose physiological role is not yet known. While aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases supply ribosome with amino acids for protein biosynthesis, this homologue transfers the activated amino acid to a s...