A new study reveals that animals and microorganisms work together to break down microbial PHAs, providing a previously overlooked way for animal food webs to access carbon. This discovery opens a new perspective on interactions between microorganisms and animals, highlighting the importance of studying unusual organisms.
Black corals' cilia perform various roles, including food transport and internal nutrient circulation. Cilia facilitate oxygen delivery and waste removal through ventilation.
A newly discovered jumping gene in a bacterial predator allows it to transfer genes to other species via circular RNA. This process accelerates evolution and challenges current understanding of horizontal gene transfer.
Researchers discovered that Akkermansia bacteria, which aid human digestion, also thrive in the ocean by breaking down seaweed sugar. This finding highlights the importance of these bacteria in both human health and marine ecosystems.
Scientists discovered 14 new species of denitrifying endosymbionts in wastewater, which contribute to nitrate removal and help hosts generate energy. However, one species produces nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, with widespread global distribution.
A new study reveals that ammonia-oxidizing archaea rely on urea as a nitrogen source, enabling them to flourish in open ocean waters. This discovery challenges existing understanding of nitrification rates and highlights the crucial role of urea in sustaining ocean productivity.
Researchers found that nitrogen oxide production is outpaced by consumption, resulting in little emissions from the Black Sea. The study identified microorganisms responsible for the turnover of this potent greenhouse gas, highlighting the importance of further research on nitrous oxide dynamics in marine environments.
Scientists have discovered how a tungsten-containing enzyme in a microbe converts toxic waste gases into ethanol, offering a promising solution for sustainable fuel production. The breakthrough reveals the mechanism behind this process, enabling the production of valuable chemicals and fuels.
A team of researchers developed a molecular probe that detects sugar consumption in microbes, revealing the role of microorganisms in breaking down ocean sugars. The study provides new insights into glycan cycling across ecosystems and sheds light on the global carbon cycle.
Scientists discovered that tiny anoxic pockets on sand grains can carry out denitrification, a process removing human-derived nitrogen from coastal sands. These microenvironments, created by microbes consuming oxygen, account for up to one-third of total nitrogen loss in silicate shelf sands.
Researchers discovered that tiny algae on glacier ice can grow rapidly despite limited nutrients, darkening the surface and accelerating melting. This finding has significant implications for predicting climate change, as it highlights a potential positive feedback loop between warming and ice melt.
Researchers found peculiar mitochondria-like symbionts in freshwater lakes, groundwater, and wastewater worldwide, revealing surprising metabolic capacities. They can respire oxygen in addition to nitrogen, impacting the nitrogen cycle and potentially producing greenhouse gases.
Scientists have characterized enzymes involved in the degradation of ethane, a process that plays a crucial role in the biological filter at marine seeps. The study reveals a key aspect of the ethane-degrading microbes and their ability to adapt to different environments.
A new integrated method simplifies luminescence lifetime measurements, allowing researchers to determine lifetimes using standard camera systems. This breakthrough technique transforms fields that rely on optical sensing and chemical imaging.
Researchers discovered a bacterial parasite that infects the nuclei of deep-sea mussels, reproducing to over 80,000 cells while keeping its host alive. The parasite produces proteins that suppress apoptosis, an 'arms race' with the host cell, and acquires nutrients from host components.
Researchers discovered that certain bacteria can utilize methane to grow and generate energy, preventing its release into the atmosphere. These microorganisms, known as methanotrophs, are essential for controlling methane emissions and regulating the global climate.
Researchers studied bacterial evolution in lucinid clams surrounding the Isthmus of Panama, where Caribbean and Pacific environments differ significantly. The study found that symbiotic bacteria adapted to these changes by acquiring nitrogen fixation genes and developing unique metabolic capabilities.
Research reveals phages infecting SAR11 bacteria, causing massive cell death and creation of 'zombie' cells. These cells, lacking ribosomes, are thought to be recycled for new phage DNA production, highlighting the importance of microbial interactions in the ocean.
Scientists find new partnership between diatoms and Rhizobia bacteria in ocean nitrogen fixation, playing a crucial role in sustaining marine productivity. The discovery has exciting implications for agriculture, particularly for breeding crops that can thrive without fertilizers.
Researchers found that extracellular vesicles transport RNA molecules between haloarchaea, enabling communication and gene regulation across microbial populations. A small GTPase similar to eukaryotic cells drives this process, suggesting an early evolutionary origin.
Researchers found that the bacterial community in Arctic seabed sediments remains stable throughout the seasons, with changes in gene expression of carbohydrate-degrading enzymes. This suggests that bacteria can utilize fresh material from the water column as well as stored compounds in the seabed.
Scientists discovered how methanogenic archaea regulate nitrogen uptake using a molecular switch that adjusts enzyme activity based on 2-oxoglutarate levels. This regulation prevents energy waste when cells have enough nitrogen.
A study by Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology reveals that extracellular vesicles are the primary mechanism for genetic information exchange in the ocean. This discovery challenges traditional views on horizontal gene transfer and highlights the importance of EVs in microbial ecosystems.
Researchers discovered bacteria can produce methane in oxygen-saturated surface waters, using methylphosphonate as a phosphorus source. This process has significant effects on atmospheric greenhouse gases and the carbon cycle of nutrient-poor ocean regions.
Scientists have isolated a microbial enzyme that converts CO2 to formate with high efficiency when attached to an electrode, making it a potential candidate for capturing the greenhouse gas. The system uses renewable energy from wind or solar power to drive the conversion process, storing energy in the form of formate.
Researchers have isolated two previously unknown species of microbes that can grow on nitric oxide, a highly reactive and toxic molecule. These microbes, named Nitricoxidivorans perserverans and Nitricoxidireducens bremensis, convert NO to nitrogen gas, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change.
Researchers discovered a methanogen that converts sulfate into a cellular building block, reassembling a metabolic pathway piece by piece. The microbe assembled the first sulfate assimilation pathway from a methanogen, using genetic tricks to overcome energetic costs and toxic intermediates.
A new study reveals faster growth rates of SAR11 bacteria than previously believed, with some groups dividing up to ten times faster. The research also shows that the timing of bacterial proliferation can influence their abundance and survival, challenging previous assumptions about marine microbial life.
Researchers discovered that a Mediterranean marine worm can produce phytosterols de novo, and other animals have the genes to make these plant sterols. This finding reveals that many animal species may benefit from phytosterols' ability to improve blood cholesterol levels.
High concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were detected in intertidal sands of the Wadden Sea. ROS inhibit microbial activity, reducing mineralization processes such as aerobic respiration and sulfate reduction, but their removal boosts microbial growth.
Researchers discovered a new species of bacteria, Sulfurimonas pluma, living in cold, oxygen-saturated hydrothermal plumes globally. The microorganism uses hydrogen as an energy source, contrary to previous assumptions and expanding our understanding of its ecological role.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology reveal how a specific enzyme, Fsr, converts sulfite into sulfide, allowing methanogens to grow safely on toxic substances. This discovery opens opportunities for biotechnological applications and provides insights into the evolution of these microorganisms.
Researchers discovered that brown algae's fucoidan can remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the global cycle in the long term. The fucoidan is a recalcitrant molecule that does not return to the atmosphere quickly, making the brown algae particularly effective in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Scientists have successfully grown a heat-loving methanogen that can fix nitrogen while producing methane, a process that could lead to more efficient fertilizer and biofuel production. The microbe, Methanothermococcus thermolithotrophicus, uses a unique metabolism to acquire energy from methaneogenesis.
A new method called sensPIV has been developed to measure both flow and oxygen concentrations simultaneously at the smallest scales. This breakthrough allows researchers to study how corals generate flows, increasing oxygen transport, and has potential applications in life sciences, microfluidics, and medicine.
Seagrasses release massive amounts of sugar into their soils, storing up to 35 times more carbon than forests. Microbes thrive on the sucrose despite phenolics inhibiting metabolism, and beneficial relationships between plants and rhizosphere microorganisms are found.
Researchers have identified Velamenicoccus archaeovorus, an ultramicrobacterium that devours Methanosaeta cells in sewage treatment plants, leading to a new understanding of biomass conversion and recycling in deep sediments. The giant protein encoded by the gene enables it to dissolve cells.
Seagrasses form methane from methylated compounds, which persist in plant tissue for decades, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Methane production is highly efficient and robust against environmental stresses in seagrass meadows.
Researchers found massive sponge gardens on extinct underwater volcanoes, dominated by sponges that feed on microbial symbionts and organic matter. The unique ecosystem supports thousands of years of life, with sponges acting as ecosystem engineers to create their own food trap.
Researchers have successfully cultivated an archaeon called Methanoliparia from an oil production facility, which can convert oil into methane and carbon dioxide on its own. The microbe's unique genetic make-up gives it the ability to break down various hydrocarbons and activate enzymes that produce methane.
Seagrasses have a symbiotic relationship with bacterial partners that convert nitrogen gas into a form the plants can use, allowing them to thrive in nutrient-poor habitats. This unique partnership enables seagrasses to reach their largest growth during summer months when nutrients are scarce.
The Verrucomicrobiota group of bacteria plays a crucial role in degrading polysaccharides released by algae during spring blooms in the North Sea. These specialized bacteria consume hard-to-degrade sugars, including those containing sulfate and fucose, using unique pathways and organelle-like structures to avoid toxic compounds.
A study by Max Planck Institute researchers found that bacteria on sand grains in the North Sea and Arctic remain consistent throughout seasons. The community's stability suggests a lack of available space for new inhabitants.
A new study reveals that some bacterial symbionts of bivalves have traveled the globe and established partnerships with host species across diverse habitats. This finding challenges previous concepts of symbiont acquisition and highlights the remarkable flexibility in this partnership, which benefits both hosts and symbionts.
Researchers discovered ethane-eating microbes at hydrothermal vents, which use the same enzyme as methane-eaters to break down ethane. The enzyme's unique structure was visualized with unprecedented precision, revealing a larger catalytic chamber and additional methyl groups, allowing for efficient recognition of ethane.
A team of researchers has developed a new imaging technique to visualize the chemical interactions between small animals and their microbes. This allows for a better understanding of how these interactions form and persist in animal tissues. The method, called chemo-histo-tomography, combines chemical imaging with micro-computed X-ray ...
A study by Tanja Stratmann and colleagues found that sponges attached to manganese nodules provide a habitat for numerous animal species, including small worms, crabs, and clams. Removal of the nodules would disrupt this ecosystem, leading to a significant reduction in animal diversity.
Researchers have found that small marine snow particles are crucial for the anammox process, which converts nitrate into nitrogen gas, releasing it to the atmosphere. These tiny particles, about the size of a hair, transport more nitrogen than larger clumps, making them essential for the nutrient balance in the oceans.
Researchers from Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and Weizmann Institute of Science explain how methane carbon isotopes behave differently than expected in the deep sea. They found that sulfate availability governs the isotope effects in anaerobic methane oxidation, leading to 13C-depleted methane.
Researchers used metaproteomics to study the bacterial response to algal blooms in the North Sea. They found that bacteria initially focus on easy-to-degrade substrates and later shift to harder polymers composed of mannose and xylose.