Methanobrevibacter smithii are archaea that live in the intestines, oral flora and genital tract of mammals. These are so-called methane generators, which metabolize carbon dioxide and hydrogen to water and methane and thus support healthy colonization of the intestines, mouth and genital tract. The absence of Methanobrevibacter smithii in the colon is now associated with obesity.
What are Methanobrevibacter smithii?
Along with bacteria and eukaryotes, archaebacteria are one of three domains of cellular organisms. Archaea are single-celled organisms whose DNA is arranged in small volumes. You are one of the prokaryotes. Cell organelles do not contain archaea.
The human body naturally has a certain single-cell household and is therefore the natural habitat of various bacterial colonies. For example, different single-cell organisms live in the human intestine, which perform various tasks in connection with digestive processes. One of the most important intestinal bacteria is Methanobrevibacter smithii. This is an archaebacterium that, in addition to the intestines of many mammals, also colonizes the vagina and oral flora of humans.
The bacterium is one of the hydrogenotrophic methane producers, and methane is formed during their energy metabolism. Methane belongs to the group of alkanes and is created within an organism in the intestinal area from enzymatically split food.
Methane-producing microorganisms such as Methanobrevibacter smithii are actually incorrectly referred to as bacteria. Bacteria and archaea were originally assigned to a common taxon. Since the 1990s, however, bacteria and archaea have been treated as two different taxa, with methanogenesis being carried out exclusively by archaea. All methane generators belong to the archaea and thus the Euryarchaeota.
Occurrence, Distribution & Properties
The archaea Methanobrevibacter smithii are organisms that grow in an oxygen-free habitat. This property is also known as obligate anaerobia. This form of anaerobia distinguishes the archaea from organisms that can optionally live under oxic conditions. The intestinal inhabitants are fluorescent and methanogenic. They utilize hydrogen and carbon dioxide in the intestinal flora and the tooth flora to generate methane and water. In this context, the archaea also speak of hydrogenotrophic methane formers. Hydrogen and carbon accumulate in the intestines and in the dental flora of mammals mainly due to the metabolic processes of other microorganisms.
For methane generators, the release of energy during methanogenesis is a vital process. Methanogenesis therefore serves them as an energy source. The archaea are therefore not parasites: they do not grow at the expense of host organisms, but live with them in a mutually beneficial relationship.
The Methanobrevibacter smithii are methanogens that convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen to water and methane. The formic acid conversion can also play a role in the production of methanol. All methane generators prefer to live at ideal temperatures between zero and 70 degrees Celsius. They are less able to deal with freezing temperatures and temperatures higher than 90 degrees are fatal to them. Temperatures over 50 degrees, on the other hand, make the methane generators particularly efficient. The ideal milieu for archaea is pH-neutral or slightly alkaline and optimally consists of 50 percent water.
The habitat of methane generators is not exclusively the human or animal body. Many formers are also found in water sediments, water-saturated soils or manure, as they find nitrogen compounds, mineral elements and trace elements to survive in these areas of life.
The microorganisms are inhibited by organic acids, oxygen and disinfectants. In the human intestine, they occur mainly within the colon section. Ultimately, the Methanobrevibacter smithii are part of the anaerobic food chain and represent its last point. The metabolism occurring there lead to the formation of methane.
Meaning & function
The Methanobrevibacter smithii take on vital tasks in the human body and represent a kind of garbage disposal. Garbage recyclers clean up the colon and the dental flora by utilizing the waste from other microorganisms. These waste products are mainly hydrogen molecules, from which colleagues the archaea produce methane.
In this context, the microorganisms play a decisive role, among other things, with flatulence. The activity of Methanobrevibacter smithii supports the colonization of other intestinal and dental bacteria. Methane formers are indispensable elements for both the dental flora and the intestinal flora and contribute significantly to the functioning of the overall system. According to new scientific findings, not all people carry the archaea in their intestines.
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Methanobrevibacter smithii do not colonize the intestinal flora in around 15 percent of the population. Science assumes that in the absence of bacteria, less useful bacteria settle in the intestines. That would mean that people without the methane-forming intestinal inhabitants have a poorer, less-functioning digestion than those with the archaea. A scientific research subject in this context is obesity. Some scientists are currently speculating about the extent to which the absence of Methanobrevibacter smithii could favor obesity and related phenomena.
In the area of the dental flora, too, the absence of archaea could lead to a general reduction in beneficial bacteria and thus favor dental diseases that can be traced back to poor dental flora.
With regard to obesity, science has already come to the first results through animal experiments. As part of a study, Washington University colonized the intestines of mice with the same intestinal bacteria that are found in the human intestine. Certain individuals received no Methanobrevibacter smithii in the experiment, while others were colonized with Methanobrevibacter smithii. The test animals without Methanobrevibacter smithii were significantly thicker than the individuals with the microorganisms at the end of the study.
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