Microbial

Researchers diving on a coral reef in Mo’orea, French Polynesia during the 2019 bleaching event. Credit: Milou Arts of NIOZNew findings show that coral bleaching prompts the release of compounds that encourage harmful bacterial growth, suggesting these changes could serve as early indicators of reef stress and aid in conservation efforts.On healthy reefs around the world, corals, algae, fishes and microbes live interconnected and in balance—exchanging nutrients, resources, and chemical signals. New research led by the…

Researchers have identified a single-celled microbe that aids coral survival during ocean-warming events, like bleaching. This study reveals the critical role of specific protists in the coral microbiome in determining a coral’s ability to withstand heat stress. Credit: SciTechDaily.comNew research highlights the role of microorganisms in protecting corals from heat stress.Researchers discovered for the first time a single-celled microbe that can help corals survive ocean-warming events like bleaching. The new study, led…

A drill core sample from the Barberton greenstone belt used in the study. The dark layers contain particles of carbonaceous matter, the altered remains from Palaeoarchaean microorganisms. Credit: Manuel ReinhardtThe research team has discovered complex microbial communities in ecosystems dating back over 3 billion years.Microorganisms are believed to be Earth’s earliest life forms, with evidence embedded in rocks that are 3.5 billion years old. These rocks contain geochemical and morphological markers, like specific…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain In recent years, the hydrothermal alteration of olivine has attracted the attention of geologists, biologists, and chemists. It significantly influences the physical and chemical properties of the oceanic lithosphere, and it plays an important role for the recycling of volatiles (such as water and carbon) in subduction zones. In…

Devoid of light and deprived of nutrients, the depths of Earth might seem too barren to bother scouring for signs of life. But subterranean microbial organisms actually make up an enormous part of our planet’s biosphere. They are second only to plants in terms of total estimated biomass.Now an abandoned gold mine in South Dakota is allowing the deepest look yet into this secret world of buried biodiversity. In new research published in the journal Environmental Microbiology, a genetic analysis of the mine’s microbes from…

MIT chemists are reducing the carbon footprint of chemical fertilizers by using nitrogen-fixing bacteria as a sustainable alternative. They developed a protective metal-organic coating that enables these bacteria to withstand heat and humidity, enhancing seed germination rates significantly. This innovation could make microbial fertilizers more accessible and promote regenerative agriculture. Credit: SciTechDaily.com New coating protects nitrogen-fixing bacteria from heat and humidity, which could allow them to be…

Prof. Magdalena Osburn removes a sample during a site visit in August. Credit: Sanford Underground Research Facility A former goldmine serves as a gateway to explore microbial life deep within the Earth’s crust. If you totaled the mass of all microbes dwelling beneath the Earth’s surface, their combined biomass would surpass that of all life in our oceans. However, due to the challenge of accessing these depths, this teeming underground life remains largely unexplored and poorly understood. Utilizing a repurposed…

By Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knoell Institute June 20, 2023Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology have made breakthroughs in understanding microbial electrosynthesis (MES), revealing that bacteria use electrons from hydrogen, rather than absorbing them directly from the supplied electric current.How bacteria use carbon dioxide and electricity to produce useful chemicalIn the field of microbial electrosynthesis, microbes…

Geochemistry of 14 hot springs in the flat-slab and back-arc regions of Peru. a Piper diagram showing the major ion chemistry and TDS for flat-slab springs (FSS) and back-arc springs (BAS; note Sp. 4 TDS). b Principal component analysis (PCA) based on the measured aqueous, gas, and isotope geochemistry. Springs separate into four groups FSS into A&B; BAS into C&D, with one major exception (Sp. 9). This lower temperature BAS falls into PCA group…

Coral reefs, bastions of marine biodiversity because of the abundant fish, invertebrates, and algae they support, are also home to Earth’s greatest microbial diversity, according to a new estimate. From 2016 to 2018, an international team of researchers aboard the sailing ship Tara studied 99 reefs off 32 islands across the Pacific Ocean, home to 80% of the world’s corals. They sequenced DNA from more than 5000 samples of three coral species, two fish species,…