Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and increasing anthropogenic emissions of methane to the atmosphere could have a major impact on climate. Microorganisms can grow on methane and short-chain alkanes, such as propane and butane, and it had been assumed that these gases were oxidized by completely different groups of organisms. Now Andrew Crombie and J. Colin Murrell show that the facultative methanotroph Methylocella silvestris BL2 encodes two distinct soluble di-iron centre monoxygenase gene clusters, equipping it to use either methane or propane as a carbon and energy source. The ability of an environmentally widespread strain to degrade both methane and propane underlines the importance of microbial processes in climate modelling and in oil spills, unconventional methods of gas extraction and other human activities.
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机译：甲烷是一种有力的温室气体，人为排放到大气中的甲烷不断增加可能会对气候产生重大影响。微生物可以在甲烷和短链烷烃（例如丙烷和丁烷）上生长，并且已经假定这些气体被完全不同的生物组氧化。现在，安德鲁·克龙比（Andrew Crombie）和J.科林·穆雷尔（J. Colin Murrell）表明，兼性甲烷氧化菌甲基甲烷球菌BL2编码两个不同的可溶性二铁中心单加氧酶基因簇，使其能够使用甲烷或丙烷作为碳和能源。在环境中广泛分布的菌株降解甲烷和丙烷的能力强调了微生物过程在气候模拟和溢油，非常规的气体提取方法以及其他人类活动中的重要性。
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