This bacterium is a true metalhead.
Scientists have discovered a new type of bacteria that survives by gobbling up metal, according to a new study.
Researchers have long believed that a metal-chewing bacteria existed, but couldn’t prove it until Jared Leadbetter, a Caltech microbiologist in Pasadena, launched an experiment.
He left a glass jar covered with manganese, a white metal similar to ordinary chalk, in his office sink for months, and found it again covered in a mysterious dark substance, he said in a press release.
“I thought, ‘What is that?’ Leadbetter said. “I began to wonder if the much sought-after microbes could be responsible, so we systematically tested to solve it.”
The researchers soon discovered that the compound had been oxidized by a bacterium that wants to eat everything from cars to silverware.
The yet-to-be-named bacteria is likely found in California tap water, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature, which does not mention the impact of the bacteria on people.
To prove that the bacteria have a metal diet, Leadbeater and his team coated more jars with manganese and sterilized them with searing steam. They then searched for 70 species of bacteria, eventually ruling out all but the new one.
“This discovery fills a significant intellectual void in our understanding of Earth’s elemental cycles, and adds to the various ways in which manganese, an abstruse but common transition metal, has shaped the evolution of life in our planet, “said Caltech geobiologist Woodward Fischer. who did not participate in the study.
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