A fifth of the United States’ electricity is generated from nuclear power, which can also be used for medical procedures and other applications. The radioactive waste generated by nuclear reactors, hospitals and universities need to be disposed of in specially selected sites. Deinococcus bacteria have the capacity to add electrons to a variety of metals,…

Many chemicals released into the environment from industrial and residential waste streams don’t occur in nature, so the microbes in the soil and water may not have the enzymes capable of breaking these compounds down, causing these pollutants to build up and cause problems. Some microbes have adapted over time, developing pathways by which they…

Burkholderia strains are involved in carbon cycling and contribute to a healthy, carbon dioxide-fixing environment by fixing atmospheric nitrogen and helping to counter plant pathogens. The bacteria are also known for their ability to break down pollutants in soil and water such as the organic chemical trichloroethene. The abundance of these bacteria in nature suggests…

Mycobacteria are known for causing human and animal diseases but they are also important degraders of hard-to-break-down water contaminants such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). So far the handful of bacterial species representing the Mycobacterium genus that have been sequenced all break down PAHs. In this project, researchers focus on the…

Antarctica’s Deep Lake was isolated from the ocean by glaciers long ago, creating a salt water lake with a unique ecosystem for studying the evolution of marine microorganisms in harsh extremes. Among these microorganisms are haloarchaea, members of the halophile community which need high salt concentrations in order to grow. Haloarchaea are a distinct evolutionary…

The process by which plants and some bacteria can convert light energy to sugar, or photosynthesis, is crucial to global food webs, and complicated. Very little is known about the photosynthetic bacteria in the purple sulfur bacteria group, which may represent one of the most primitive photosynthetic organisms and are capable of carbon fixation and…

Microbes for bioremediation have primarily focused on ability to break down the contaminants. But microbes can also remove contaminants from water or waste streams by converting them into a less toxic form that is then precipitated out of the liquid. These techniques have industrial applications as conventional wastewater treatment processes without microbial aid are inefficient…

Heavy metal contaminants such as lead, copper and mercury can enter the food chain through sources such as vehicle exhaust, house paint, fertilizers and atmospheric deposition. To better understand how microorganisms might influence the break down of such contaminants, the U.S. Department of Energy has established research sites, including one in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The…

Actinotalea fermentans is a bacterium isolated from a landfill and grows best in moderate temperature, where it ferments cellulose to acetate and ethanol aerobically. This organism was previously considered as a potential way to convert cellulose to ethanol for use as a fuel, but the fermentation reaction always led to reduced yields, reducing the bacterium’s…

Established as a separate group of organisms just a few decades ago, archaea are tiny, single-celled organisms that thrive in environments noted for their extreme conditions such as very hot or very cold temperatures. For example, salt-loving or halophilic archaea can be found throughout the world in environments such as Utah’s Great Salt Lake and…