Methanobrevibacter millerae SM9 was isolated from the rumen of a sheep maintained on a fresh forage diet, and its genome has been sequenced to provide information on the phylogenetic diversity of rumen methanogens with a view to developing technologies for methane mitigation. It is the first rumen isolate from the Methanobrevibacter gottschalkii clade to have its genome sequence completed. The 2.54 Mb SM9 chromosome has an average G + C content of 31.8 %, encodes 2269 protein-coding genes, and harbors a single prophage. The overall gene content is comparable to that of Methanobrevibacter ruminantium M1 and the type strain of M. millerae (ZA-10(T)) suggesting that the basic metabolism of these two hydrogenotrophic rumen methanogen species is similar. However, M. millerae has a larger complement of genes involved in methanogenesis including genes for methyl coenzyme M reductase II (mrtAGDB) which are not found in M1. Unusual features of the M. millerae genomes include the presence of a tannase gene which shows high sequence similarity with the tannase from Lactobacillus plantarum, and large non-ribosomal peptide synthase genes. The M. millerae sequences indicate that methane mitigation strategies based on the M. ruminantium M1 genome sequence are also likely to be applicable to members of the M. gottschalkii clade.
Keywords: Methane; Methanobrevibacter millerae; Methanogen; Rumen.