A team of scientists from MACS Agharkar Research Institute has isolated and described India’s first cultures of indigenous methanotrophs from rice fields and wetlands, mainly from Western India.
- Isolating methanotrophs from India, they published the first novel methanotroph description from India, a novel genus and species — Methylocucumis oryzae.
- Methane, the second most important greenhouse gas, has 26 times more global warming potential compared to carbon-di-oxide.
- Wetlands, ruminants, rice fields, landfills are sources of methane produced by the action of methanogens.
- In a counteractive way, methanotrophs or methane oxidizing bacteria oxidize this methane and build up their biomass, breathing oxygen and producing CO 2 and H 2 O as we do.
- Methanotrophs are natural methane mitigating agents and are present in all the environments where methane and oxygen both are available.
- Wetlands, rice fields, ponds and other water bodies are the habitats where these grow in abundance.
- It’s because of the activities of methanotrophs that atmospheric methane values have not skyrocketed over the years.
