Employing methylotrophs for a green economy: one-carbon to fuel them all and through metabolism redesign them

•Methylotrophic bacteria can use one-carbon compounds, such as methane and methanol, as a sole source of carbon and energy.•Methylotrophs can convert low grade one-carbon substrates to multicarbon compounds for energy storage and carbon sequestration.•Methylotrophy is an attractive metabolism for the conversion of renewable substrates to biofuels, biodiesels, and bioplastics.•A circular economy for critical Rare earth elements may be possible with the discovery of REE-dependent enzymes in methylotrophs.