Historical overview In 1933, Stephenson & Stickland (1933a) published that they had isolated from river mud, by the single cell technique, a methanogenic organism capable of growth in an inorganic medium with formate as the sole carbon source. 4 H C 0 0-+ 4H' + CH, + 3 C 0 , + 2H,O AGO' =-144-5 kJ mol-' Methane formation from formate was shown to occur in a stepwise manner, by the preliminary decomposition of formic acid into CO, and H, followed by a reduction of CO, by H,, suggesting that formate was not an intermediate in the reduction of CO, to methane. HCOO-+ H+-+ H, + CO, 4H,+CO,-+ C H , + 2 H 2 0 AGO' =-3-5 kJ mol-' AGO' =-131 kJ mol-' Cell suspensions of the microorganism catalysed the reduction of methylene blue with H,, indicating that the methanogen contained an enzyme which activates molecular hydrogen. H,-+ 2e-+ 2H+ E; =-414mV This enzyme had been discovered by Stephenson & Stickland (1931a) 2 years before in a number of bacterial species and was named by them 'hydrogenase'. The paper by Stephenson & Stickland (1933a) is considered to mark the beginning of the modern era for study of methanogenesis (Wolfe, 1993). It is the first Except when otherwise noted, the free energy changes given for methanogenic reactions were calculated from the free energies of formation from the elements of the substrates and products with non-gaseous compounds at 1 M aqueous solution and gaseous compounds in the gaseous state at 1 atmosphere pressure (101 kPa). The free energy changes of formation were taken from Thauer eta/. (1977). 0002-2667 0 1998 SGM Glucose-+ 3C0, + 3CH, AGO' =-418.1 kJ mol-' This reaction is not catalysed by single microorganisms but by syntrophic associations of microorganisms. First the glucose is fermented to acetate, CO, and H, or to acetate, formate and H, : Glucose + 2H,O + 2CH3COO-+ 2H' + 2C0, + 4H2 AGO' =-215.7 kJ mol-' Glucose + 2H20-+ 2CH3COO-+ 2HC00-+ 4H' + 2H, AGO' =-208.7 kJ mol-1 These fermentations are brought about by strictly anaerobic bacteria and/or protozoa. In a second step, the products of glucose fermentation are then converted to methane, the rate of conversion being such that the concentrations of acetate (< 1 mM), formate (< 0.1 mM) and H, (< 1 pM) in the anaerobic sediments remain very low (Zinder, 1993). CH3COO-+Hf-+ C02+CH, AGO' =-36 kJ mol-' 4H, + CO,-+ CH, + 2H20 AGO' =-131 kJ mol-' 4HC00-+4H+ + CH,+3C02+2H,0 AGO' =-144.5 kJ mol-' H-S-CoM, coenzyme M ; H-S-COB, coenzyme B ; H,SPT, tetrahydrosarcinapterin, which is the modified tetrahydromethanopterin (for structures see Fig. 3) present in the Methanosarcinales (Gorris & van der Drift, 1994). Reaction" Enzyme (gene) Most recent literature Acetate + CoA + acetyl-CoA + H,O AGO' = + 35.7 k J rnol-lt