''Methanococcus'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of
coccoid
Coccoid means shaped like or resembling a coccus, that is, spherical.The noun coccoid or coccoids may refer to:
* a level of organization, characterized by unicellular, non-flagellated, non-amoeboid organisms, with a definite shape, in general b ...
methanogens of the family
Methanococcaceae
In taxonomy, the Methanococcaceae are a family of the Methanococcales. These organisms produce methane from formate or through the reduction of carbon dioxide with hydrogen. They live in marshes and other coastal areas. Members of the genus '' ...
. They are all
mesophiles, except the
thermophilic ''
M. thermolithotrophicus'' and the
hyperthermophilic ''
M. jannaschii''. The latter was discovered at the base of a “white smoker” chimney at 21°
N on the
East Pacific Rise and it was the first
archaeal
genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, 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 ...
to be completely sequenced, revealing many novel and
eukaryote
Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bact ...
-like elements.
Phylogeny
The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the
List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and
National Center for Biotechnology Information
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the United States 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. T ...
(NCBI).
See also
*
List of Archaea genera
References
Further reading
Scientific journals
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Scientific books
Scientific databases
External links
Archaea genera
Euryarchaeota
{{Euryarchaeota-stub