M. silvestris is an acidophilic aerobic facultative methanotroph. It lives in soils but is difficult to select this species among the other soil bacteria.
I am sure that you are aware that this organism has the so far (there may well be similar organisms, but this is the first example) unique ability to grow mixotrophically on methane and longer chain alkanes. Thus it makes sense that Dunfield and Dedysh (2014) suggest: "One would expect that environments where either methane or longer-chain alkanes are present at high concentrations should favor specialists, whereas the generalist Methylocella should be important where a mixed diet at low or fluctuating concentrations is available. Unfortunately, we simply do not know enough about competition between facultative versus obligate methanotrophs to make conclusions."
Take home message: try mixtures and fluctuating concentrations.
Dunfield and Dedysh [(2014) Methylocella: a gourmand among methanotrophs.
Trends in microbiology 2 (7): 368-369
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