Distribution of polyamines in methanogenic bacteria

Members of all four families of methanogenic bacteria were analyzed for polyamine concentrations. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of dansylated cell extracts revealed typical polyamine patterns for each family. Members of Methanobacteriaceae (family I) were characterized by very low polyamine concentrations; members of Methanococcaceae (family II) were characterized by putrescine and high spermidine concentrations; members of Methanomicrobiaceae (family III) were characterized by the presence of putrescine, spermidine, and sym-homospermidine; and members of Methanosarcinaceae (family IV) contained only high concentrations of sym-homospermidine in addition to putrescine. The highest polyamine concentration was found in Methanosarcina barkeri Jülich, with 0.35% putrescine in the dry cell material. The polyamine distribution found coincides with the dendrogram based on comparative cataloguing of 16S rRNA and offers a new, rapid chemotaxonomic method for characterizing methanogenic bacteria. Variation of the growth substrates (H2-CO2, methanol, acetate, and trimethylamine) for M. barkeri resulted in quantitative but not qualitative differences in polyamine composition.