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2008-06-04 05:37:38
Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.comTue Jun 3, 12:18 PM ET
Being tiny has its advantages, and a newly discovered microbe in Greenland has
exploited this fully. The bacterium survived more than 120,000 years beneath
the ice where inhospitable conditions reach new lows.
Most organisms constantly deal with trade-offs, such as some hot-desert
residents that take advantage of sunshine yet must endure dehydration.
The new microbe makes dehydration seem like a walk in the park. Called
Chryseobacterium greenlandensis, the tiny bacterium was found 2 miles (3.2 km)
beneath a Greenland glacier. There, conditions are extreme, with temperatures
below 16 degrees F (-9 degrees C), high pressure, very little oxygen and meager
food.
The ultra-small size of the new species - about 10 to 100 times smaller than E.
coli bacteria - could explain why it was able to gain a foothold in such harsh
conditions and survive for so long, scientists say. Tiny microbes like this one
likely can more efficiently absorb nutrients due to a larger surface-to-volume
ratio. They also may be able to hide more easily from predators and take up
residence in microenvironments, such as microscopic veins or cracks in the ice.
"These organisms end up in the ice, because they were deposited there when the
glacier was being formed," said Penn State researcher Jennifer Loveland-Curtze.
"If they were extruded into the veins, then that would be a place they might
have been able to survive." Liquids in these veins often contain nutrients.
Loveland-Curtze, Penn State researcher Jean Brenchley and colleagues analyzed
the genetic, physiological, biochemical and structural features of the new
species. They hope to learn more about how cells survive extreme life, and
ultimately, how life, in general, could survive in extreme environments on
Earth and beyond.
"These very icy environments, the glaciers and permafrost, are great analogs
for say Mars or Europa and even planets in solar systems we don't even know
about yet," Loveland-Curtze told LiveScience.
Fewer than 8,000 species of microbes, out of the estimated 3 million presumed
to exist on Earth, have been identified to date. And only 10 or so microbe
species originating in polar ice and glaciers have been described.
Loveland-Curtze will present the research this week at a meeting of the
American Society for Microbiology in Boston. The study was supported by the
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy and NASA.
Last week, a different group announced that microbes are far more abundant on
the seafloor than was expected.
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Amazing Animal Abilities Original Story: Life Endures 120,000 Years Under Ice