新型产甲烷古菌研究进展

Recent advances on the novel methanogens

产甲烷古菌是一类能利用简单化合物产生甲烷气体的厌氧菌。近年来,随着测序技术的不断发展,科学家结合宏基因组学和其他技术先后发现了众多之前未被报道的新型产甲烷古菌。基因组分析等研究发现这几类新型产甲烷古菌具有独特的甲烷代谢通路以及广泛的生态分布,科学家推测它们在全球生态调节以及碳循环中可能起到了不可忽视的作用。然而,这些新型产甲烷古菌大部分尚未通过传统培养方法获得纯培养菌株,其确切的生理代谢机制和生态功能还有待深入研究。为了更加系统地了解这些新型产甲烷古菌,本文从它们的分类、系统发育地位、代谢机制、生态分布以及分离培养等方面进行了综述,并对新型产甲烷古菌未来的研究方向进行了展望。

Methanogens are one kind of archaea that can use simple compounds to generate methane in anaerobic environments. Thanks to the rapid development of the Next Generation Sequencing, metagenomics has revealed plenty of novel potential methanogens, including Methanomassiliicoccales (RC-III), Methanofastidiosa (WSA2), Methanonatronarchaeia, Bathyarchaeota, Verstraetearchaeota and Geoarchaeota. Genomic analysis shows that ubiquitous novel methanogens harbor unique methane metabolism pathway indicating that they might play unrecognized important roles in global carbon cycle. To better understand these novel methanogens, this review summarizes the latest researches on the classification, phylogenetic status, methane metabolic mechanism, ecological distribution, isolation and cultivation of these novel methanogens, highlighting their research directions in the future.