''Methanocalculus'' 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 order Methanomicrobiales, and is known to include

methanogen Methanogens are anaerobic archaea that produce methane as a byproduct of their energy metabolism, i.e., catabolism. Methane production, or methanogenesis, is the only biochemical pathway for Adenosine triphosphate, ATP generation in methanogens. A ...

s. The

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

of ''Methanocalculus'' is somewhat different from other genera of methanogenic

, with less than 90%

16S ribosomal RNA 16S ribosomal RNA (or 16 S rRNA) is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome ( SSU rRNA). It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure. The genes coding for it are referred to as 16S ...

similarity. The species within ''Methanocalculus'' also have a greater tolerance to salt than other

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

s, and they can live at salt concentrations as high as 125 g/L. Some species within ''Methanocalculus'' are

neutrophile A neutrophile is a neutrophilic organism that thrives in a neutral pH environment between 6.5 and 7.5. Environment The pH of the environment can support growth or hinder neutrophilic organisms. When the pH is within the microbe's range, they g ...

s, and '' Methanocalculus natronophilus'', discovered in 2013, is a strict

alkaliphile Alkaliphiles are a class of extremophilic microbes capable of survival in alkaline ( pH roughly 8.5–11) environments, growing optimally around a pH of 10. These bacteria can be further categorized as obligate alkaliphiles (those that require hig ...

Nomenclature

The name "Methanocalculus" has Latin roots: "methano" for

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

and "calculus" for gravel. Overall, it means ''gravel-shaped organism that produces methane.''

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

''Methanocalculus'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
Archaea genera Euryarchaeota {{Euryarchaeota-stub

Nomenclature

Phylogeny

See also

References

Further reading

External links