''Methanobrevibacter'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

archaea Archaea ( ) is a Domain (biology), domain of organisms. Traditionally, Archaea only included its Prokaryote, prokaryotic members, but this has since been found to be paraphyletic, as eukaryotes are known to have evolved from archaea. Even thou ...

ns in the family

Methanobacteriaceae Methanobacteriaceae are a family of archaeans in the order Methanobacteriales. Phylogeny The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and National Center for Biotechnology Inform ...

.See the

NCBI The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The NCBI is loca ...

br>webpage on Methanobrevibacter
Data extracted from the The species within ''Methanobrevibacter'' are strictly anaerobic archaea that produce methane, for the most part through the reduction of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

via

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

. Most species live in the intestines of larger organisms, such as

termites Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the sof ...

and are responsible for the large quantities of

greenhouse gases Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...

that they produce.

Nomenclature

The name ''Methanobrevibacter'' has Latin and Greek roots. ''Methanum'' is Latin for methane, ''brevi'' is Latin for short, and ''bacter'' is Greek for bar or rod. This word typically describes these bacteria which are short, rod shaped and produce methane. Professional publications use the

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

s ''M.'', ''Mbb.'', and ''Mbr.'', as in ''M. smithii'', ''Mbb. smithii'', and ''Mbr. smithii''.

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the

List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) is an online database that maintains information on the naming and taxonomy of prokaryotes, following the taxonomy requirements and rulings of the International Code of Nomenclatu ...

(LPSN) and

National Center for Biotechnology Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The NCBI is lo ...

(NCBI).

References

External links

Archaea genera Euryarchaeota Long stubs with short prose {{Euryarchaeota-stub

Nomenclature

Phylogeny

See also

References

Further reading

Scientific journals

External links