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Bacteria that "Eat" Only Air Found in Cold Deserts Around the World

posted by martyb on Thursday August 20 2020, @02:16PM   
from the micro-Breatharians dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Bacteria that "eat" only air found in cold deserts around the world:

In 2017, the UNSW researchers discovered bacteria in Antarctica that gained their energy from a new source – the air itself. In low-nutrient soil, these bugs instead pull hydrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide out of the air around them, allowing them to thrive in environments where there's very little other life. This phenomenon is known as atmospheric chemosynthesis.

And now in a follow-up study, the team has found that this ability may not be limited to Antarctica. The researchers found that the two genes previously linked to atmospheric chemosynthesis are abundant in soil in two other similar environments – the Arctic and the Tibetan Plateau.

The researchers collected 122 soil samples from 14 sites in these three regions, then extracted and sequenced DNA from them. They found that the two genes of interest were present in all 122 samples, in different amounts depending on the level of nutrients each location had to offer.

The bacteria serve as a potential model for the form life could take on alien worlds.

Journal Reference:
Angelique E. Ray, Eden Zhang, Aleks Terauds, Mukan Ji, Weidong Kong, Belinda C. Ferrari, Soil Microbiomes With the Genetic Capacity for Atmospheric Chemosynthesis Are Widespread Across the Poles and Are Associated With Moisture, Carbon, and Nitrogen Limitation, Microbiol., 12 August 2020, doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01936

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Original Submission

• uhm, yes, but what do they eat? uhm, yes, but what do they eat? (Score: 3, Interesting) by progo on Thursday August 20 2020, @03:06PM (1 child)

  by progo (6356) on Thursday August 20 2020, @03:06PM (#1039379) Homepage

  Is that list of elements sufficient to build bacteria? Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon?

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• Re:uhm, yes, but what do they eat? (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @03:40PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @03:40PM (#1039400)

  Is that list of elements sufficient to build bacteria? Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon?

  No, obviously not.

  The paper is describing a carbon fixation process only: i.e., the conversion of atmospheric carbon into more biologically useful compounds. The most well-known example of such a process is of course photosynthesis. Since these bacteria are living in environments with no/little evidence of photosynthesis, the authors propose another mechanism is at play in such environments.

  Parent