"Methanoplasmatales," Thermoplasmatales-related archaea in termite guts and other environments, are the seventh order of methanogens.

ABSTRACT: The Euryarchaeota comprise both methanogenic and nonmethanogenic orders and many lineages of uncultivated archaea with unknown properties. One of these deep-branching lineages, distantly related to the Thermoplasmatales, has been discovered in various environments, including marine habitats, soil, and also the intestinal tracts of termites and mammals. By comparative phylogenetic analysis, we connected this lineage of 16S rRNA genes to a large clade of unknown mcrA gene sequences, a functional marker for methanogenesis, obtained from the same habitats. The identical topologies of 16S rRNA and mcrA gene trees and the perfect congruence of all branches, including several novel groups that we obtained from the guts of termites and cockroaches, strongly suggested that they stem from the same m

SUBMITTER: Paul K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3497382 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature