Talk:Methanosarcina barkeri

Better citation

Confusion has probably occurred while citing. "Balch et al., 1979" is not the correct quote for the species description by M. barkeri. On the other hand, "Balch et al., 1979" may be the desired quote for another text.

Author of the species: The author of M. barkeri is not Balch et al. 1979, but the binomial name is "Methanosarcina barkeri Schnellen 1947" (e.g. LPSN: http://www.bacterio.net/methanosarcina.html).

Morphology and Gram staining: The text "...and can grow large enough to be seen by the naked eye.[5] The cells also grow large and spherical, producing a positive Gram strain.[5]..." seems to come from Balch et al. (1979, PMID 390357), while citation number [5] refers to Maeder et al. (2006, PMID 16980466). In Maeder et al. (2006, PMID 16980466), the search term "gram" finds other words (program, diagram and at least one author name in the reference list), but neither "gram positive" nor similar terms. Maeder et al. (2006, PMID 16980466) described a dichotomous morphology depending on the used medium. I guess a more detailed explanation of Methanosarcinas variable morphologies could help to understand the variable Gram results.

Morphology and Gram staining in literature dealing with Methanosarcin*:

• Balch et al. (1979, PMID 390357) -- Gram positive and large aggregations, no discription of variable morphology for Methanosarcina(ceae).
• Sowers et al. (1993, PMID 16349092) -- Variable morphology of Methanosarcina and osmolarity (salt concentration of medium), no Gram staining (search with "gram": grams per liter, micrograms, Education Program).
• Maeder et al. (2006, PMID 16980466) -- Variable morphology of Methanosarcina barkeri and osmolarity (salt concentration of medium), no Gram staining.
• Boone & Mah (2015, doi:10.1002/9781118960608.gbm00519) -- Only abstract freely visible, general features of genus Methanosarcina, variable morphologies, variable Gram staining results.

It could be a challenge to write some sentences that are true, compact, easy to understand, and correctly cited. Therefore, I am afraid to try this in English, influencing the article directly.

Whoever reads this, could you optimize the article? That would be nice.

With the best regards Dirk123456 (talk) 10:57, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

I tried now to change the text of the article by myself:

1. Author of M. barkeri: before changing (17:47, 20 February 2019), after changing (07:12, 9 April 2019)
2. Morphology+Gram: before changing (07:12, 9 April 2019), after changing (09:37, 9 April 2019)

Dirk123456 (talk) 11:54, 9 April 2019 (UTC)