title: Evidence for methane production by saprotrophic fungi.
abstract: Methane in the biosphere is mainly produced by prokaryotic methanogenic archaea, biomass burning, coal and oil extraction, and to a lesser extent by eukaryotic plants. Here we demonstrate that saprotrophic fungi produce methane without the involvement of methanogenic archaea. Fluorescence in situ hybridization, confocal laser-scanning microscopy and quantitative real-time PCR confirm no contribution from microbial contamination or endosymbionts. Our results suggest a common methane formation pathway in fungal cells under aerobic conditions and thus identify fungi as another source of methane in the environment. Stable carbon isotope labelling experiments reveal methionine as a precursor of methane in fungi. These findings of an aerobic fungus-derived methane formation pathway open another avenue in methane research and will further assist with current efforts in the identification of the processes involved and their ecological implications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Atmospheric Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Hahn-Meitner-Weg 1, 55128 Mainz, Germany. katharina.lenhart@mpic.de
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lenhart
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bunge
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ratering
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Neu
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schüttmann
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Greule
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kammann
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schnell
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zorn
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Keppler
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018533:Biomass; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism*; D008715:Methionine / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008715:Methionine; D008697:Methane