Methylobacterium extorquens is a methylotroph capable of oligotrophic growth on one-carbon compounds. As this organism can easily adapt to poor nutrient environments, it is ideal as a quality control standard for growth performance testing of media.

JP 16 G8 4.4.2 of the Japanese Pharmacopoeia describes the R2A agar media growth promotion test required for microbiological monitoring of pharmaceutical water. To support this assay, ATCC now offers Methylobacterium extorquens strain NBRC 15842 (ATCC® BAA-2500™) for use as a quality control standard.

The addition of this strain to the ATCC collection completes the compendium of control organisms used in the microbiological analysis of water for pharmaceutical use, including: