Related topics: bacteria

When methane-eating microbes eat ammonia instead

As a side effect of their metabolism, microorganisms living on methane can also convert ammonia. In the process, they produce nitric oxide (NO), a central molecule in the global nitrogen cycle. Scientists from the Max Planck ...

Sugar turns brown algae into good carbon stores

You may like them or not, but almost everyone knows them: brown algae such as Fucus vesiculosus, commonly known as bladderwrack, grow along the entire German coast. Giant kelp like Macrocystis or Sargassum grow closely together ...

How to target a microbial needle within a community haystack

A team led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Marine Microbiology has developed, tested and deployed a pipeline to first target cells from communities of uncultivated microbes, and then efficiently retrieve ...

New ethane-munching microbes discovered at hot vents

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen have discovered a microbe that feeds on ethane at deep-sea hot vents. With a share of up to 15%, ethane is the second-most common component of natural ...

All-in-one: New microbe degrades oil to gas

Crude oil and gas naturally escape from the seabed in many places known as "seeps." There, these hydrocarbons move up from source rocks through fractures and sediments toward the surface, where they leak out of the ground ...

A probiotic treatment for obesity?

Alterations in the gut microbiota—the microorganisms residing in the gastrointestinal tract—have been implicated in the development of obesity and other chronic diseases.

Engineered microbial production of grape flavoring

Researchers report a microbial method for producing an artificial grape flavor. Methyl anthranilate (MANT) is a common grape flavoring and odorant compound currently produced through a petroleum-based process that uses large ...

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