production therefore as an inhibitor of hmg coa reductase lovastatin suppresses isoprenoid production and thus cholesterol synthesis and membrane formation in the archaea wolin and miller 2005 showed that lovastatin significantly reduced growth and activity of pure methanogenic bacteria without any negative effect on cellulolytic bacteria as mentioned above f 420 h 2 nadp is one of the coenzymes that act during the catalysis of the electron transfer step between nadp and f 420 reducing nadp to nadph with the acceptance of one or more hydrides h u2212 from f 420 sharma et al 2011 determined a 3d model structure of the f 420 dependent nadp oxidoreductase from m smithii based on their protein model of f 420 dependent nadp oxidoreductase enzyme they detected that these residues are making a ligand binding site pocket and after further studies they found that ligand f 420 binds at the protein cavity the inhibitor compounds lovastatin and compactin mevastatin show more affinity for the model protein as compare to the natural ligand f 420 they share the same cavity as by f 420 and surround by similar residues in other words the inhibitor compounds lovastatin and compactin mevastatin were very effective in blocking the activity site for methane production since the enzyme was unable to bind with.