Talk:Methanogenesis

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Er.. Helicobacter pylori says that it

• Requires oxygen, and
• uses hydrogen methanogeneis as an energy source.

Isn't this a counterexample to the claim that oxygen kills all known methanogens?

[edit] All methanogens are obligately anaerobic

Helicobacter pylori is not a methanogen and as such can not perform methanogenesis. As of August 2006, all methanogens known to us are members of Archaea and respire anaerobically. Further, they are all obligate methanogens; they cannot sustain growth in the absence of methane-making.

[edit] Atmospheric Methane as sign of life?

Excellent article on the whole. I have only one small addendum. Something should probably be said about interpreting atmospheric methane as a sign of life on another planet (or planemo). The argument being that methane in the atmosphere will eventually dissapate unless something is replenishing it. This something could then be the decomposition of organic matter. So if we can detect it (by using some sort of spectrometer for example) then that means there is, or was relatively recently, life there. This was of course debated when methane was discovered in the martian atmosphere by (among others) the Mars Express Orbiter (2004) and in Titan's atmosphere by the Huygens probe (2005). However, it is also argued that atmospheric methane can come from volcanoes or other fissures in the planet's crust. --Kavrod 22:28, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Or not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.160.40.149 (talk) 23:52, 19 November 2007 (UTC)