All-in-one: New microbe degrades oil to gas

Archaea have presented many surprises in recent years. Now, a study led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, and the MARUM, Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences, provides environmental information, genomes and first images of a microbe that has the potential to transform long-chain hydrocarbons to methane.

This microbe, an archaeon named Methanoliparia, transforms the hydrocarbons by a process called alkane disproportionation: It splits the oil into methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Previously, this transformation was thought to require a complex partnership between two kinds of organisms, archaea and bacteria. Here, the team from Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and MARUM presents evidence for a different solution. "This is the first time we get to see a microbe that has the potential to degrade oil to methane all by itself," first-author Rafael Laso-Pérez explains.

During a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, the scientists collected sediment samples from the Chapopote Knoll, an oil and gas seep, 3000 m deep in the ocean. Back in the lab in Bremen, they carried out genomic analyses that revealed that Methanoliparia is equipped with novel enzymes to use the quite unreactive oil without having oxygen at hand.

Thus, the scientists next want to dig deeper into the secret life of this microbe. "Now we have the genomic evidence and pictures about the wide distribution and surprising potential of Methanoliparia. But we can't yet grow them in the lab. That will be the next step to take.