From the Mass Production of Methylococcus Capsulatus to the Efficient Separation and Isolation of Methane Monooxygenase Proteins. Characterization of Novel Intermediates in Substrate Reactions of Methane Monooxygenase

Methanotrophs are naturally occurring bacteria which utilize methane as their sole source of metabolic energy and carbon.* Due to their ability to catalyze the formation of methanol from methane under ambient conditions, interest has developed over their use as alternative methanol producers.2 In addition, the fact that they oxidize a variety of hydrocarbon substrates other than methane, attracted a lot of attention in their potential exploitation in bioremediation.3 The metalloenzyme system responsible for the conversion of methane to methanol (Reaction 1) in the initial step of their metabolism is methane monooxygenase (MMO).