In South Korea, scientists have discovered an extraordinary microbe (pictured) with highly unusual feeding behavior. The bacterial species was found in a mist-covered swamp near the top of 1,304-meter-high Mount Daeam, where legend has it that dragons like to rest.
A research team with Austrian participation ventured into the “Yongneup” (dragon swamp) and extracted some pieces of peat from it. Here, at last, extraordinary microbes are discovered that “breathe” sulfur and the highly flammable gas methane. The find was published in the journal PNAS.
The team led by Sung-Keun Rhee of Chungbuk University in Cheongju, South Korea, named this microbe Methyloviggula thiovorans, which means “rod-shaped methane bacterium that swallows sulfur.” It’s the first type of microbe found anywhere in the world that uses both methane and sulfur compounds and uses the resulting energy to grow, the scientists report in the journal PNAS.
This happens with independent metabolic pathways, so the microbes can “breathe” (oxidize) both types of substances at the same time, they explain. Alexander Loy from the Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Research at the University of Vienna was also involved in the study.
Source: Krone
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