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Author: Robert Karl StonjekRobert Karl Stonjek Date: Jul 22, 2008 11:33
Microbes beneath sea floor genetically distinct
Tiny microbes beneath the sea floor, distinct from life on the Earth's
surface, may account for one-tenth of the Earth's living biomass, according
to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, but many of these minute
creatures are living on a geologic timescale.
"Our first study, back in 2006, made some estimates that the cells could
double every 100 to 2,000 years," says Jennifer F. Biddle, PhD. recipient in
biochemistry and former postdoctoral fellow in geosciences, Penn State. "Now
we have the first comprehensive look at the genetic makeup of these
microbes." Biddle is now a postdoctoral associate at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The researchers looked at sediment samples from a variety of depths taken
off the coast of Peru at Ocean Drilling Site 1229. They report their
findings in today's (July 22) online issue of the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
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Author: Tom HendricksTom Hendricks Date: Jul 24, 2008 14:42
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Author: LorentzLorentz Date: Jul 25, 2008 10:00
On Jul 22, 2:33 pm, "Robert Karl Stonjek" bigpond.net.au>
wrote:
> The researchers, who included Biddle; House; Stephan C. Schuster, associate
> professor; and Jean E. Brenchley, professor, biochemistry and molecular
> biology, Penn State; and Sorel Fitz-Gibbon, assistant...
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Author: DKDK Date: Aug 1, 2008 10:22
In article darwin.ediacara.org>, Lorentz yahoo.com> wrote:>On Jul 22, 2:33 pm, "Robert Karl Stonjek" bigpond.net.au>
>wrote:
>>> The researchers, who included Biddle; House; Stephan C. Schuster, associate
>> professor; and Jean E. Brenchley, professor, biochemistry and molecular
>> biology, Penn State; and Sorel Fitz-Gibbon, assistant research molecular
>> biologist at the Center for Astrobiology, UCLA, found that a large
>> percentage of the microbes were Archaea, single-celled organisms that look
>> like Bacteria but are different on the metabolic and genetic levels. The
>> percentage of Archaea increases with depth so that at 164 feet below the sea
>> floor, perhaps 90 percent of the microbes are Archaea. The total number of
>> organisms decreases with...
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