Methanobrevibacter is a genus of archaea in the family Methanobacteriaceae. The species within Methanobrevibacter genus are strictly anaerobic and produce methane through the reduction of carbon dioxide via hydrogen with some also able to utulize formate. Methanobrevibacter species exclusively inhabit digestive tract of various animals such as cattle, termites, and primates including humans. As part of cattle gut microbiome, Methanobrevibacter species responsible for about 20% of annual methane emission to the atmosphere.
Nomenclature The name Methanobrevibacter has Latin and Greek roots. Methanum is Latin for methane, brevi is Latin for short, and bacter is Greek for bar or rod. This word typically describes these bacteria which are short, rod shaped and produce methane.
Professional publications use the abbreviations M., Mbb., and Mbr., as in M. smithii, Mbb. smithii, and Mbr. smithii.
Phylogeny The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
16S rRNA based LTP_07_2026 53 marker proteins based GTDB 11-RS232
The GTDB tree shows named species represented in R11-RS232; accession-based placeholder species are omitted. Quoted genus names are genome-based names used by GTDB and are not validly published replacements for Methanobrevibacter under the ICNP. The suffix "_A" is a GTDB cluster identifier.
Unassigned species: "Ca. M. cononymphae" Kaneko et al. 2024 "M. massiliense" Huynh et al. 2015
See also List of Archaea genera
References
Further reading Scientific journals