“We are looking to better understand the evolution of microbes in the groundwater plume,” Watson said. “The microbes that can break down nitrate into nitrogen can have a long-term benefit toward attenuating the plume.”Watson added that researchers particularly want to better understand the genetic makeup of microbes that can metabolize oxidized forms of uranium into a form that is only slightly soluble and thus easier to precipitate and remove from the groundwater environment.ORNL’s Watson was joined in the study by the University of Oklahoma’s Jizhong Zhou and Christopher Hemme; Joint Genome Institute Director Eddy Rubin; and a team that included researchers from ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division, the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Environmental Genomics, Montana State University, Michigan State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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