( abundantelement in the universe. If t...)Yellowstone microbes fueled by hydrogen, according to U. of Colorado study

abundant element in the universe. If there is life elsewhere, it could be that hydrogen is its fuel," Spear said. "We've seen evidence of water on Mars, and we know that on Earth, hydrogen can be produced biogenetically by photosynthesis and fermentation or non-biogenetically by water reacting with iron-bearing rock. It's possible that non-biogenic processes produce hydrogen on Mars and that some microbial life form could be using that," he said. There are many examples of bacteria living in extreme environments -- including the human body -- using hydrogen as fuel, according to Spear. "Recent studies have shown that Helicobacter pylori bacteria, which cause ulcers, live on hydrogen inside the stomach," said Spear. "Salmonella metabolizes hydrogen in the gut. It makes me wonder how many different kinds of microbes out there are metabolizing hydrogen in extreme environments." Instead of relying on traditional techniques of microbiology that utilize cultures grown in the lab, the CU-Boulder team used methodology developed by Pace to genetically analyze the composition of the microbial community as it appeared in the field. "We didn't look at what grows in a culture dish, we looked at the RNA of samples directly from the field," Spear said. "We've never before known what microbes were living in Yellowstone hot springs, and now we do," Pace said. A novel suite of instruments was used to gather data, some of which had never before been collected. "No one had measured the concentration of hydrogen in the hot springs before because the technology didn't exist until about seven years ago. Now we can detect very low-level concentrations of hydrogen in water," Spear explained. "We found lots of hydrogen in the hot springs -- an endless supply for bacteria," he said. Measurements of the amount of H2 in water were recorded in Yellowstone hot springs, streams and geothermal vents in different parts of the park and during different seasons. All of the environments had concentrat
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Source:University of Colorado at Boulder


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