[Formation of squalene and pigment 462 by the culture of Methanobacillus kuzneceovii].

Using hexane extraction, squalene, its four hydroforms and an unknown orange-yellow coloured compound termed as pigment 462 (since it has a specific absorption maximum in the visible region of the spectrum) were isolated from a thermophylic methane-producing culture of Methanobacillus kuzneceovii. Pigment 462 is rapidly reduced by sodium borohydride and is readily oxidized by air oxygen; its functional group is the keto group. The physico-chemical properties of pigment 462 indicate that the pigment is one of the components of the electron transport chain of methane-producing bacteria and is localized in the membrane.