Scientists Isolate Microbes That Eat Carbon Dioxide

Life on Earth is a fascinating subject. There are organisms that thrive in hot sulfur pools inside the caldera of volcanoes and others that love the oxygen-deprived icy peaks of the world's highest mountains. Others swim in the deepest parts of the ocean, where sunlight never penetrates and pressures are hundreds of times greater than at the surface. Last September, scientists from the 2 Frontiers project traveled to the Italian island of Vulcano (the name says it all), where some of the water seeping from under the dormant volcano contains high levels of carbon dioxide. The team of divers collected many samples of seawater with low to high carbon dioxide content. They then prepared samples in a field laboratory where pairwise DNA sequencing and culture experiments were performed. The results will allow researchers to characterize and exploit the evolution of life along the dissolved carbon gradient. The team is in the process of cultivating new carbon sequestering organisms from these samples and building a living database for use by the scientific community. The second research program is currently underway at a hot spring in the Rocky Mountains, where the concentration of carbon dioxide is even higher. These samples are now in the process of analysis.