Microbes discovered that can be beneficial in remediating the effects of global warming
What an amazing planet we live on. It’s funny, being humans, we tend to think we kind of know everything about our planet, at least. But the folly of that is that we don’t know more than half of the things, yet it’s so easy to think we know it all. And in this ignorance, we are causing massive destruction to this planet.
Greenhouse gases are the biggest plague that is destroying the ecosystem in the worst way possible by affecting the ozone layer and rising the global temperature which causes ice caps to melt. Nothing seems to be stopping them from wreaking havoc on our world. The biggest destructor out of all of the greenhouse gases is Methane (CH4) that is much stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2), 34 times stronger if compared over 100 years. While concentrations of methane in the atmosphere are about 200 times lower than carbon dioxide, methane is still responsible for 60% of the global air pollution and also affect the abundance of other greenhouse gases so this means methane can’t be ignored — reducing methane levels is definitely a goal to pursue.
Fortunately, we live in the era of modern science, the era in which science is struggling to make anything possible. The science of today is trying to make the life of living beings on this planet easier, and this struggle scientists have recently discovered found microbes that may help us save our planet from those hazardous greenhouse gases.
In a recent discovery by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute, the team investigated the area around the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. At about 2000 meters beneath the surface, they found something reallyfascinating! Different kinds of previously unknown life in microbial communities living in the extremely hot (400F), deep-sea sediments. So far, the researchers have recovered 551 genomes, 22 of which represented new entries in the tree of life. According to Brett Baker, the lead author on a paper about the discovery, these new species were genetically different enough to not only represent new branches in the tree of life, but some were different enough to represent entirely new phyla. Yet he thinks this is just the beginning.
But things get more interesting when we start thinking about how these new microorganisms can be beneficial to us. These little perseverant creatures live off of hydrocarbons like methane and butane as energy sources to survive and grow. Which means the newly identified bacteria will be able to help limit the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere!
But there is more to it! They may devour oil spills too. Hope you’re hungry little guys, we have a lot to feed you
Several species of marine bacteria have also been discovered that feed on ingredients in crude oil and natural gas. Now, one of these species has been found to be a particularly promising candidate for a champion against oil spills.
Meet Alcanivorax borkumensis or A. borkumensis for short. The specie was discovered alone with methane consuming bacteria and the rod-shaped microbe is assumed to be present in all of the world’s oceans oil-polluted areas, as it is found that it uses hydrocarbon molecules for food. The bacterium’s genome was surprising sequenced more than 10 years ago by a group of researchers from the German Research Center for Biotechnology — but now another team has gone deeper, identifying an enzyme (Hydralyse) that gives this bacteria the ability to break down crude oil and gas. Also, they could be modified to become even better oil eaters. This will turn them into a cheap, easy to use solution to the problem that had plagued the oil industry for decades, especially since the seriousness of oil spills reached the limelight in recent years.
So, tiny little A. borkumensis is a very promising microorganism that can theoretically be used to clean up oil spills both in the water and on the ground, even in difficult to reach areas, which is especially valuable. The question is when the theoretical can become practical and it is, for now, a question without an answer.
But are these two microorganisms the only new heroes that were waiting to be discovered? Dr. Baker has a different thought to that.
“These discoveries show the deep oceans contain more expansive unexplored biodiversity, and microscopic organisms there are capable of degrading oil and other harmful chemicals,” says Baker.
In short, we can say that there is so much more we have yet to learn. Who knows what else we may find in the dept of the oceans? — maybe even more little worriers that can solve so many of our problems. that we can’t even imagine about!
REFERENCES
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07418-0#Bib1 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181127092525.htm
