Faculty Opinions recommendation of Discovery of extremely halophilic, methyl-reducing euryarchaea provides insights into the evolutionary origin of methanogenesis.
Journal: Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature
Year: 2019

Methanogenic archaea are major players in the global carbon cycle and in the biotechnology of anaerobic digestion. The phylum Euryarchaeota includes diverse groups of methanogens that are interspersed with non-methanogenic lineages. So far methanogens inhabiting hypersaline environments have been identified only within the order Methanosarcinales. We report the discovery of a deep phylogenetic lineage of extremophilic methanogens in hypersaline lakes, and present analysis of two nearly complete