Just In
- 53 min ago Vidya Balan's 'Do Aur Do Pyaar' Urban Boho Style Avatar Is Relatable And Inspiring, Check Her Modern Avatar!
- 8 hrs ago Golden Rules To Follow For Happy Marriage For A Long Lasting Relationship
- 9 hrs ago Gajalakshmi Rajyog In Aries 2024: Lucky Zodiac Signs Who Will Get Financial Benefits
- 12 hrs ago Met Gala 2024: Date, Theme, Venue, Guest List, All You Need To Know About The Fashion Event
Don't Miss
- Sports DC vs SRH Dream11 Prediction IPL 2024 Match 35: Squads, Fantasy Tips & Best Picks
- Finance 1:10 Split, Rs 299/Sh Dividend: Tata's Steel Stock Up 11% In 30-Days, Better Than Nifty; PL Says Accumulate
- Movies Bigg Boss Malayalam 6 Elimination Update: Jaanmoni Gets Evicted From Mohanlal’s Show? Here’s What We Know
- News Police To Enhance Security At Courthouse For Trump's Trial After Disturbing Incident
- Education Exam Pressure Does Not Exist; Studying Punctually is Crucial; Says Aditi, the PSEB 2024 Topper
- Automobiles Suzuki Swift Hatchback Scores 4 Star Safety Rating At JNCAP – ADAS, New Engine & More
- Technology Dell Introduces AI-Powered Laptops and Mobile Workstations for Enterprises in India
- Travel Journey From Delhi To Ooty: Top Transport Options And Attractions
Scientists Develop Carbon Dioxide Eating Bacteria, A New Hope For Climate Emergency?
Carbon dioxide is essential to the survival of plants and animals. However, excessive levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be extremely harmful, not just for the atmosphere but also for your health. Regarded as being the major cause of climate crisis, carbon dioxide level variations in the atmosphere leads to climatic temperature-changes.
The CO2 blanket formed as a layer in the atmosphere prevents the escape of sun rays, where the trapped radiation warms up the atmosphere - resulting in the well-known greenhouse effect. Numerous studies have been conducted on reducing the impact of the gas on atmosphere, with many failing to develop a solution.
In a recent study conducted by a group of researchers in Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel have developed a new bacterial strain that can allegedly consume carbon dioxide for energy instead of complex organic compounds [1] . Let's read on to know more about the study and its findings.
The Researchers Converted E.coli To CO2 Eating Bacteria
Published in the journal Cell, the researchers converted the bacterium Escherichia coli (E.coli) to a carbon dioxide consuming autotrophic strain. The plan to convert it to an autotrophic organism was rooted in the fact that autotrophic organisms dominated the biomass on the Earth, supplying much of the planet's food and fuels [2] .
The researchers had engineered industrially relevant heterotrophic model organisms to use carbon dioxide as the sole food source, which had failed, prompting the researchers to rewire the metabolism of lab-grown E. coli to produce strains that were autotrophs.
The sugar consuming E.coli bacteria which then releases carbon dioxide were reprogrammed by the group of scientists, where they mapped the genes that are essential for the study process and added some of them to the bacteria genome in their lab.
New Strain Of Bacteria Is Critical For Earth's Sustainability
The researchers are already focusing on developing an understanding of the principles of autotrophic growth, as well as methods to enhance the process, as it can be critical for the Earth's sustainability in the age of a human-driven climate crisis [3] [4] .
It was asserted that the healthy habits of these bacteria may prove to be mostly healthy for the earth.
"When we started the directed evolutionary process, we had no clue as to our chances of success, and there were no precedents in the literature to guide or suggest the feasibility of such an extreme transformation. In addition, seeing, in the end, the relatively small number of genetic changes required to make this transition was surprising," said the head researcher [5] .
On A Final Note...
One of the limitations about the study, as asserted by the researchers was that the consumption of formate by bacteria released more carbon dioxide than that was consumed through carbon fixation. They also pointed out that more research is required to ascertain the industrial application of the new strain of bacteria.
- [1] Gleizer, S., Ben-Nissan, R., Bar-On, Y. M., Antonovsky, N., Noor, E., Zohar, Y., ... & Milo, R. (2019). Conversion of Escherichia coli to generate all biomass carbon from CO2. Cell, 179(6), 1255-1263.
- [2] Holmes, B., Paddock, M. B., VanderGheynst, J. S., & Higgins, B. T. (2019). Algal photosynthetic aeration increases the capacity of bacteria to degrade organics in wastewater. Biotechnology and bioengineering.
- [3] Mushtaq, M., Banks, C. J., & Heaven, S. (2019). Evaluation of pressurised carbon dioxide pre-treatment aimed at improving the sanitisation and anaerobic digestibility of co-settled sewage sludge. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, 54(3), 261-268.
- [4] Alcover, N., Carceller, A., Álvaro, G., & Guillén, M. (2019). Zymobacter palmae pyruvate decarboxylase production process development: Cloning in Escherichia coli, fed‐batch culture and purification. Engineering in Life Sciences, 19(7), 502-512.
- [5] Orlando, A. (2019, November 27). Scientists Just Created a Bacteria That Eats CO2 to Reduce Greenhouse Gases. Retrieved from, https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/scientists-just-created-a-bacteria-that-eats-co2-to-reduce-greenhouse-gases
- insync#EarthWarriors: Earth Day Campaign By Josh In Partnership With Earthday.org And Mash Project Foundation
- womenNetizens Applaud As Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Becomes Youngest Time Person Of The Year
- wellnessHow Climate Change Affects Your Sleep & Overall Health
- basicsHot Weather May Up Risk Of Diabetes In Pregnancy
- wellnessWhy You Should Wear A Scarf In Winter
- disorders cureClimatic Change And Its Ill Effects
- wellnessPrecautions To Be Taken During Heat Wave
- insyncWarmer The Ocean, More The food For Fish