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Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is a microbial process occurring in anoxic marine and freshwater sediments. During AOM methane is oxidized with different terminal electron acceptors such as sulfate, nitrate, nitrite and metals.〔 〕 ==Coupled to sulfate reduction== The overall reactions is: :CH4 + SO42− → HCO3− + HS− + H2O Sulfate-driven AOM is mediated by a syntrophic consortium of methanotrophic archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria.〔Knittel, K. and Boetius, A. (2009) Anaerobic oxidation of methane: progress with an unknown process. Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 63: 311–334.〕 They often form small aggregates or sometimes voluminous mats. The archaeal partner is abbreviated ANME, which stands for "anaerobic methanotroph". ANME's are very closely related to methanogenic archaea and recent investigations suggest that AOM is an enzymatic reversal of methanogenesis. It is still poorly understood how the syntrophic partners interact and which intermediates are exchanged between the archaeal and bacterial cell. The research on AOM is hindered by the fact that the responsible organisms have not been isolated. This is because these organisms show very slow growth rates with a minimum doubling time of a few months. Countless isolation efforts have not been able to isolate one of the anaerobic methanotrophs, a possible explanation can be that the ANME archaea and the SRB have an obligate syntrophic interaction and can therefore not be isolated individually. In benthic marine areas with strong methane releases from fossil reservoirs (e.g. at cold seeps, mud volcanoes or gas hydrate deposits) AOM can be so high that chemosynthetic organisms like filamentous sulfur bacteria (see Beggiatoa) or animals (clams, tube worms) with symbiont sulfide-oxidizing bacteria can thrive on the large amounts of hydrogen sulfide that are produced during AOM. The production of bicarbonate from AOM can result in the precipitation of calcium carbonate or so-called authigenic carbonates. These authigenic carbonates are known to be the most 13C depleted carbonates on Earth, with δ13C values as low as -125 per mil PDB reported. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「anaerobic oxidation of methane」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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