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6266662 
Book/Book Chapter 
Chapter 13 - Methane Biocatalysis: Selecting the Right Microbe 
Kalyuzhnaya, MG 
2016 
Elsevier 
Amsterdam 
Biotechnology for Biofuel Production and Optimization 
353-383 
Methane utilization has been demonstrated for a number of microbial species. Some of them, such as Methylococcus capsulatus Bath, Methylomonas spp., and Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b, became the catalytic platforms of choice for biotechnological explorations. These strains have been used for the production of single-cell protein, polysaccharides, polyhydroxyalkanoates, lipids, and carotenoids. Emerging biotechnologies for conversion of the abundant C1 alcane into next-generation chemicals/biofuels add extra requirements to the catalyst leading to a new quest for fast, efficient, and genetically tractable systems. Over the past few decades, a number of novel biochemical pathways for microbial methane utilization have been discovered. As a result, new methane-utilizing microbes have been brought into laboratory cultures. Today a wide spectrum of such microbes is available, including thermophilic and psychrophilic, alkaliphilic and acidophilic, and oligotrophic and halophilic variants. Methanotrophs have been isolated from landfills and garden soils, animal dung and rumen, groundwater and oil-drilling sites, thermal vents, and permafrost. These microbes are becoming new sources of chemicals and enzymes and offer new strategies for metabolic engineering of C1 metabolism. This review highlights some of the most recent discoveries in microbial utilization of methane and describes unique properties of well-established microbial catalysts side by side with their less explored comrades. 
Methanotrophic bacteria; Biotechnology; Methane biocatalysis; Microbial platform; Methanotrophic strains 
Trinh, Cong T.