A new study indicates how the first cells might have evolved from rocks, water and hot alkaline fluid rich in hydrogen gas spewing out of deep-sea vents, and how they might have escaped their deep sea lairs.
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Tag: microbiology
Ancient Fungi Discovered Deep in Ocean Floor Could Yield New Antibiotics
Scientists have found evidence of fungi thriving far below the floor of the Pacific Ocean, in nutrient-starved sediments more than 100 million years old. This could yield antibiotics to combat the drug-resistant bacteria.
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Antarctic Lake Vida Has a Bounty of Microbial Life
Lake Vida in Antarctica is covered by an ice cap up to 27 meters thick, is six times saltier than sea water, and with an average temperature of −13 °C is one of the coldest aquatic environments on the planet. However, it is teeming with microbial life.
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Deepest Scientific Marine Samples Ever Collected Show Hints of Life
A recent expedition resulted in a new world record for deepest scientific marine drilling, 2,440 meters beneath the seafloor. The Research Vessel Chikyu off the coast of Japan’s Shimokita Peninsula housed the members of the microbiology team that took part in groundbreaking leg of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.
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Biochemical Reactions Act Differently When Subjected to Intracellular Crowding
Molecular crowding inside cells is a critical factor that is sometimes overlooked in the lab. Biochemical reactions are drastically different in tighter spaces, resulting in significant physical and chemical consequences.
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Strains of E. Coli Have Been Linked to Cancer in Mice
The DNA-damaging bacterium Escherichia coli that flourishes in the digestive tracts of mice afflicted with inflammatory bowel disease has been linked to cancer. Scientists found that the microbiome plays a part in cancer.
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Number of Microbes Living on Earth Drastically Lower Than Previously Thought
The floor of the ocean is home to 2.9×1029 single-celled organisms but this large number, 10 million trillion microbes for every human on planet Earth, is only 8% of the previous estimate of 35.5×1029. Jens Kallmeyer, a geomicrobiologist and his colleagues at the University of Potsdam in Germany have created the most accurate model of the geographical distribution of microbes in the marine sediment. They published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Early Intake of Antibiotics Linked to Obesity in Mice
Bacteria living within the gut could have a link to obesity, possibly explaining how antibiotics fatten farm animals, and humans as well, and predispose some organisms to obesity.
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Microbiota in Pregnant Women Looks Like Those of People with Diabetes
The microbiota in pregnant women’s gut change as their pregnancy advances, resembling more like those of people who might develop diabetes. These changes, while not damaging maternal health, correspond with increases in blood glucose and fat deposits thought to help the nourishment of the developing child.
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Arsenic-Tolerant GFAJ-1 Bacterium Still Needs Phosphorous
18 months after the controversy started, it’s become official that the arsenic-tolerant bacterium, GFAJ-1, found in California’s Mono Lake, cannot live without phosphorous. It was reported in 2010 by a group led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a microbiologist, now working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in the journal Science that the Halomonadaceae bacterium GFAJ-1 could include some atoms of arsenic instead of phosphorous in hits crucial biochemicals.
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