Methanosphaera


Methanosphaera is a genus of Archaea within the family Methanobacteriaceae. It was distinguished from other genera within Methanobacteriaceae in 1985 on the basis of the oligonucleotide sequence of its 16S RNA. Like other archaea within Methanobacteriaceae, those of Methanosphaera are methanogens, but while most use formate to reduce carbon dioxide, those of Methanosphaera use hydrogen to reduce methanol to methane.

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of [Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature] and National [Center for Biotechnology Information].