New Paper in PNAS: A widespread soil bacterium that oxidizes atmospheric methane

Alexander Tveit (former PostDoc at TER) and Andreas Richter were part of an international team led by Mette Svenning from the Arctic University of Norway, that report the first cultivation and characterization of a widespread methane oxidizing bacterium that lives on air and utilizes methane at its atmospheric trace concentration as a carbon and energy source. The bacterium Methylocapsa gorgona additionally has the potential to additionally utilize 5 atmospheric gases, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and carbon monoxide, nitrogen and oxygen, to supply its metabolism, and this metabolic versatility might be the key to live on air.