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Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria Can Produce Methane

posted by janrinok on Wednesday January 17 2018, @02:24AM   
from the that-smell-again dept.

takyon writes:

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are a source of methane in the atmosphere:

An unexpected source of methane in the environment has been inadvertently discovered.

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are the chief means by which nitrogen gas in the air is changed into a form that plants and animals can use. Roughly 10 percent of these nitrogen-fixing microorganisms contain the genetic code for manufacturing a back-up enzyme, called iron iron-only nitrogenase, to do their job.

Recent research reveals that this enzyme allows these microorganisms to convert nitrogen gas to ammonia and carbon dioxide into methane at the same time. The ammonia is the main product; the methane is only a sideline.

This enzymatic pathway is a previously unknown route for the natural biological production of methane.

A pathway for biological methane production using bacterial iron-only nitrogenase (DOI: 10.1038/s41564-017-0091-5) (DX)

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Original Submission

• Re:chemistry doesn't work out Re:chemistry doesn't work out (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @03:35AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @03:35AM (#623414)

  That isn't the reaction that is "given". It's the reaction you deduced from the incomplete summary and article. From the Nature article's [nature.com] abstract:

  Here, we report that wild-type iron-iron (Fe-only) nitrogenase from the bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris reduces CO₂ simultaneously with nitrogen gas (N₂) and protons to yield CH₄, ammonia (NH₃) and hydrogen gas (H₂) in a single enzymatic step.

  Emphasis added. Protons are of course hydrogen nuclei which are basically everywhere. I suppose they get most of the protons from breaking up water molecules (hydrolysis).

  Parent

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• Re:chemistry doesn't work out (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @03:43AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @03:43AM (#623418)

  You lost the oxygen. Water is not listed as a product.

  Parent