New groups of methane-producing organisms in Yellowstone National Park Hot springs , the methane-producing single-celled organisms are called methanogens
The team verified that microbes found in Yellowstone National Park hot springs produce methane to grow
The first known examples of single-celled organisms that produce methane to exist outside the lineage Euryarchaeota, which is part of the larger branch of the tree of life called Archaea
While humans and other animals eat food, breathe oxygen, and exhale carbon dioxide to survive, methanogens eat small molecules like carbon dioxide or methanol and exhale methane
Most methanogens are strict anaerobes, samples were harvested from sediments in Yellowstone National Park hot springs ranging in temperature from 141 to 161 degrees Fahrenheit
The researchers grew the Yellowstone microbes in the lab. The microbes not only survived but thrived and they produced methane. The team then worked to characterize the biology of the new microbes
While one of the newly identified group of methanogens, Methanodesulfokora, seems to be confined to hot springs and deep-sea hydrothermal vents, Methanomethylicia, are widespread
Methanogens are sometimes found in wastewater treatment plants and the digestive tracts of ruminant animals, and in marine sediments, soils and wetlands
Methanogens are significant because they produce 70% of the world's methane, a gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere
Methane levels are increasing at a much higher rate than carbon dioxide, and humans are pumping methane at a higher rate into the atmosphere than ever before