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Desulfovibrio-Methanosarcina Lactate Syntrophy

Community ID CommunityMech:000150
Ecological State ENGINEERED
Environment anaerobic laboratory rumen-fluid coculture — ontology label: laboratory environment
ENVO:01001405 · HabitatMech ↗

A classic anaerobic two-member syntrophic coculture in which Desulfovibrio desulfuricans degrades lactate in the absence of added sulfate and Methanosarcina barkeri consumes fermentation products for methanogenesis. Lactate is first degraded to acetate and methane; later acetate is converted to methane and carbon dioxide, illustrating how hydrogen and substrate dynamics regulate coupled lactate oxidation and methanogenesis.

Taxonomy

Taxon Ontology ID Functional Roles Abundance
Desulfovibrio desulfuricans NCBITaxon:876 · TaxonMech · TraitMech
PRIMARY_DEGRADER SYNTROPHIC_PARTNER
N/A
  • PMID:16345708 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Desulfovibrio desulfuricans or Desulfovibrio vulgaris"
Methanosarcina barkeri NCBITaxon:2208 · TaxonMech · TraitMech
SYNTROPHIC_PARTNER CROSS_FEEDER
N/A
  • PMID:16345708 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "coculture with Methanosarcina barkeri"

Ecological Interactions

The graph shows only explicitly linked interaction participants. Community members without an asserted participant link are omitted; membership alone does not imply an interaction.

Ecological interaction network for Desulfovibrio-Methanosarcina Lactate Syntrophy Bipartite graph where circles represent taxa and non-circular symbols represent interactions, with distinct shapes and colours for syntrophy. Rare or untyped interactions share the Other symbol; exact curated types remain in the interaction details.
Taxon
Syntrophy
Other

Lactate Degradation to Acetate and Methane

SYNTROPHY

In the no-added-sulfate pair, D. desulfuricans supplies fermentation products supporting M. barkeri methanogenesis. The exact primary pair is Essex 6 with MS; D. vulgaris and M. smithii comparisons are separate systems.

Source Taxon: Desulfovibrio desulfuricans

Target Taxon: Methanosarcina barkeri

Metabolites: lactate (CHEBI:24996 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), acetate (CHEBI:30089 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), methane (CHEBI:16183 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech)

Biological Processes:

Downstream Effects:
→ Acetate Conversion by Methanosarcina

Donor-produced acetate supplies the later methanogenic substrate. Its utilization timing also depends on hydrogen and medium conditions.

→ Hydrogen Inhibition of Acetate Degradation

PARTIAL - donor hydrogen production is implicated in delayed acetate use by coculture time courses and separate pure-culture hydrogen perturbation, not selective removal of donor hydrogen in the exact pair.

Evidence

  • PMID:16345708 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "lactate was completely degraded, with almost stoichiometric production of acetate and CH(4)"

Acetate Conversion by Methanosarcina

M. barkeri consumes acetate for methanogenesis as hydrogen declines. This recipient process is not reverse cross-feeding; the coculture carbon-dioxide coproduct is presumed rather than directly resolved.

Source Taxon: Methanosarcina barkeri

Metabolites: acetate (CHEBI:30089 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), methane (CHEBI:16183 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), carbon dioxide (CHEBI:16526 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech)

Biological Processes:

Evidence

  • PMID:16345708 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "Later, acetate was degraded to CH(4) and presumably to CO(2)"

Hydrogen Inhibition of Acetate Degradation

Hydrogen availability delays acetate use under the tested conditions, not all methanogenesis: hydrogen can support greater growth and methane production. Enzyme repression is a proposed explanation. YE and RV media differ.

Source Taxon: Desulfovibrio desulfuricans

Target Taxon: Methanosarcina barkeri

Metabolites: dihydrogen (CHEBI:18276 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech), acetate (CHEBI:30089 · MediaIngredientMech · CMMMech)

Evidence

  • PMID:16345708 - PARTIAL (IN_VITRO)
    "H(2) produced by the Desulfovibrio species during growth with lactate inhibited acetate degradation"

Associated Datasets

Dataset Type Repository Accession
Desulfovibrio-Methanosarcina lactate syntrophy publication
Publication reporting lactate degradation, acetate dynamics, hydrogen effects, and methane production in Desulfovibrio-methanogen cocultures. 		PHENOTYPE OTHER PMID:16345708

Knowledge gaps & discussions (1)

KNOWLEDGE_GAP OPEN Should hydrogen inhibition have an explicit negative arrow to acetate conversion?

Existing positive support and conditional inhibition are retained. The missing negative arrow needs the one-community research workflow and primary-source assessment under #1400, so this record remains needs_research. Edison dry run only; no provider job/charge. Medium and strain metadata remain open under #1399.

Attaches to: ecological_interactions#Lactate Degradation to Acetate and Methane, ecological_interactions#Acetate Conversion by Methanosarcina, ecological_interactions#Hydrogen Inhibition of Acetate Degradation

Environmental Factors

Factor Value Unit
absence of added sulfate sulfate-free coculture condition N/A
  • PMID:16345708 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "grown in the absence of added sulfate"
rumen fluid vitamin medium rumen fluid-vitamin-based medium N/A
  • PMID:16345708 - SUPPORT (IN_VITRO)
    "rumen fluid-vitamin-based medium"

Growth Media

anaerobic rumen fluid-vitamin medium

Atmosphere ANAEROBIC

Preparation notes: Sulfate-free anaerobic medium with rumen fluid and vitamins used for methanogenic growth experiments.

Evidence

PMID:16345708

"rumen fluid-vitamin-based medium"

Cross-Mech Suite Links

Explore related entities across the CultureBotAI X-Mech knowledge bases:

HabitatMech: anaerobic laboratory rumen-fluid coculture ↗ TaxonMech: Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ↗ TraitMech: Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ↗ TaxonMech: Methanosarcina barkeri ↗ TraitMech: Methanosarcina barkeri ↗ CultureMech Growth Media ↗ PathwayMech Pathways ↗