An Obligately Photosynthetic Bacterial Anaerobe from a Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent

The abundance of life on Earth is almost entirely due to biological photosynthesis, which depends on light energy. The source of light in natural habitats has heretofore been thought to be the sun, thus restricting photosynthesis to solar photic environments on the surface of the Earth. If photosynt...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 102; no. 26; pp. 9306 - 9310
Main Authors Beatty, J. Thomas, Overmann, Jörg, Lince, Michael T., Manske, Ann K., Lang, Andrew S., Blankenship, Robert E., Van Dover, Cindy L., Martinson, Tracey A., Plumley, F. Gerald, Buchanan, Bob B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 28.06.2005
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Bacteria
Bacteria, Anaerobic - chemistry
Bacteria, Anaerobic - physiology
Biological Evolution
Biological Sciences
Biology
Carbon - chemistry
Carbon Dioxide - chemistry
Chlorobi
Chlorobi - physiology
Chlorobium
Demand side management
DNA - analysis
Ecosystem
Light
Microscopy, Electron
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Molecular Sequence Data
Oxygen - metabolism
Photons
Photosynthesis
Pigments
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Renewable energy
Seawater
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
Spectrophotometry
Submarine hydrothermal vents
Sulfur
Temperature
Time Factors
Water Microbiology
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Summary:The abundance of life on Earth is almost entirely due to biological photosynthesis, which depends on light energy. The source of light in natural habitats has heretofore been thought to be the sun, thus restricting photosynthesis to solar photic environments on the surface of the Earth. If photosynthesis could take place in geothermally illuminated environments, it would increase the diversity of photosynthetic habitats both on Earth and on other worlds that have been proposed to possibly harbor life. Green sulfur bacteria are anaerobes that require light for growth by the oxidation of sulfur compounds to reduce CO2to organic carbon, and are capable of photosynthetic growth at extremely low light intensities. We describe the isolation and cultivation of a previously unknown green sulfur bacterial species from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, where the only source of light is geothermal radiation that includes wavelengths absorbed by photosynthetic pigments of this organism.
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To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jbeatty@interchange.ubc.ca.
Abbreviation: BChl, bacteriochlorophyll.
Communicated by Bob B. Buchanan, University of California, Berkeley, CA, May 3, 2005
Author contributions: J.T.B., J.O., R.E.B., C.L.V.D., and F.G.P. designed research; J.T.B., J.O., M.T.L., A.K.M., A.S.L., R.E.B., C.L.V.D., T.A.M., and F.G.P. performed research; J.T.B. and R.E.B. analyzed data; and J.T.B., R.E.B., and C.L.V.D. wrote the paper.
Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database [accession nos. AY627684 (FMO) and AY627756 (16S rRNA)].
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0503674102