- A new kind of bacteria that eats metal is discovered by scientists after suspecting the existence for more than a hundred years but never proving it.
- Microbiologists based in California Institute of Technology, accidentally discovered the bacteria by performing unrelated experiments through a chalk-like type of manganese.
- Researchers found that the black coating found on the jar was oxidized manganese which had been generated by newly discovered bacteria mostly found in the tap water.
- According to scientists findings will help them better understand groundwater, and water systems which can become clogged by manganese oxides.
Amy Woodyatt writes for CNN about the discovery of new kind of bacteria that eats and obtains its calories from metal.
Experimental Process
Dr. Jared Leadbetter, professor of environmental microbiology at Caltech in Pasadena, left a glass jar covered with the substance to soak in tap water in his office sink, and left the vessel for several months when he went to work off campus.
When he returned, Leadbetter found the jar coated with a dark material.
“I thought, ‘What is that?’ “ Leadbetter explained in a press release. “I started to wonder if long-sought-after microbes might be responsible, so we systematically performed tests to figure that out.”
“There is evidence that relatives of these creatures reside in groundwater, and a portion of Pasadena’s drinking water is pumped from local aquifers,” he said.
Manganese as an energy source
- In recent research published in Nature journal , scientists note that these are the first bacteria to use manganese as an energy source.
- The research outcome reveals that the bacteria can use manganese for a process called chemosynthesis for converting carbon dioxide into biomass.
- According to researchers, unidentified microbes could harness the process to spur growth, but only knew of bacteria and fungi that could do so.
“There is a whole set of environmental engineering literature on drinking-water-distribution systems getting clogged by manganese oxides,” Leadbetter said.
“But how and for what reason such material is generated there has remained an enigma. Clearly, many scientists have considered that bacteria using manganese for energy might be responsible, but evidence supporting this idea was not available until now.”
Better understanding of manganese nodules
Researchers believe that the discovery could help to understand manganese nodules — large metallic balls which can reach the size of a grapefruit and are often found on the sea floor.
The balls, which often contain rare metals, are sometimes harvested from the ocean floor, but little is understood about them.
“This discovery from Jared and Hang fills a major intellectual gap in our understanding of Earth’s elemental cycles, and adds to the diverse ways in which manganese, an abstruse but common transition metal, has shaped the evolution of life on our planet,” said Woodward Fischer, a professor of geobiology at Caltech, in a statement. Fischer was not involved with the study.
