They are spherical mesophilic or thermophilic bacteria that prefer a neutral acidic environment. The only way to get energy is the synthesis of methane from carbon dioxide and hydrogen . Found on the shores of the seas, on salty marches and geothermal springs . The sum of guanine and cytosine bases in DNA is from 28.6 to 33.1%. The genome consists of 1.66-1.93 million base pairs and encodes the 1663-1892 gene [1] .
For the first time, bacteria of this family were described by Albert Kluiver and Cornelius Van Neal in 1936. In 1981, Balkhom and Wolfe separated the genus Methanococcus into a separate family Methanococcaceae, and in 2002 Wittmann discovered the second genus Methanothermococcus [1] .
As of June 2017, the family includes two genera [2] :
- Methanococcus Kluyver and van Niel 1936 emend. Barker 1936 emend. Mah and Kuhn 1984 typus (5 species)
- Methanothermococcus Whitman 2002 (2 species)