N2 fixation and methane oxidation effectiveness of mixed cultures of methanotrophic bacteria from ricefields

Abstract

CH4 emissions in a rice field and wetlands is mostly produced by methanogenic bacteria and 80% of the CH4 is oxidized by methanotrophs. Besides of their ability to oxidize methane, methanotrophs also have ability to fix nitrogen. Four selected isolates of methanotrophs which had high nitrogen fixation activity i.e.(BGM 1, BGM 3, BGM 5, and BGM 9 isolates were combined with SKM 14 isolate which had high methane oxidation activity to obtain ideal formulations of the methanotrophs that have high activity of nitrogen fixation and methane oxidation activities. Nitrogen fixation activity was determined by measuring accumulated ammonium in medium and acetylene reduction assay (ARA). The highest concentraion of ammonium on single culture of methanotrophic bacterium was performed BGM 1 isolate (1,86 μM ammonium), and mixed culture of BGM3 and BGM9 isolates had the highest ammonium accumulation (4,905 μM ammonium). The highest nitrogenase activity was performed by mixed culture of BGM1 and SKM14 isolates, it was 11,27 μmol/ml cultures/hour. Whereas the higest methane oxidation was performed by mixed culture of BGM5 and BGM9 isolates, it was 18,20 ppm /ml cultures /day.