New Methane-Metabolizing Organisms Discovered 600 Meters Below Sea Surface
Researchers announced that they discovered two new types of methane-metabolizing microorganisms, which played an unknown role in greenhouse gas emissions and consumptions, according to a recent study at the University of Queensland.
The researchers claimed that textbooks on methane-metabolizing may have to be rewritten based on the new findings, according to a news release.
"We sampled the microorganisms in the water from a deep coal seam aquifer 600m below the earth's surface in the Surat Basin, near Roma, Queensland, and reconstructed genomes of organisms able to perform methane metabolism," said Gene Tyson, Deputy Head of UQ's Australian Centre for Ecogenomics in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences.
"Traditionally, these type of methane-metabolizing organisms occur within a single cluster group of microorganisms called Euryarchaeota" Tyson said.
The new finding had researchers in dismay, as they were curious about how many other types of methane-metabolising microorganisms are out there. The unusual methane metabolizing organisms belong to a group of microorganisms called the Bathyarchaeota, which are an evolutionarily diverse group of microorganisms. These organisms are found in various types of environments, including deep-ocean and freshwater sediments, according to the researchers.
The researchers discovered the methane-metabolizing microorganisms by using advanced computational tools, which were developed at the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics over the past two years.
"To use an analogy, the finding is like knowing about black and brown bears, and then coming across a giant panda. They have some basic characteristics in common, but in other ways these they are fundamentally different," Tyson said. "This makes us wonder how many other types of new 'bears' or of methane-metabolizing microorganisms are out there, that science has still not identified?"
The research opens new doors about the diversity of life on earth and it highlights the fact that we are still learning about new organisms in the carbon cycling and methane production, according to the researchers.
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