In her NY Times blog, Olivia Judson gives an ovation to Archaea. This domain of organisms gets none of the recognition of their more famous kin, Bacteria and Eukaryotes despite their unusual biology. As she describes, some members of the group Archaea have extreme tolerance to temperature and pH, thriving in the boiling acids found in hot springs and the bottom of ocean vents. All known methane producing microbes are found among the Archaea.
Tag Archives: methane
Anaerobic methane oxidizer produces oxygen!
In today’s Nature Ettwig et al. describe how a methane oxidizing bacterium generates O2 by reducing nitrite. This provides O2 needed for the typical methane mono-oxygenase enzyme (MMO) to operate under anoxic conditions. The News & Views by Ron Oremland gives a nice summary of the novelty.