Supermicrobe Might Provide Solution for Ecologic Hydrogen Generation

Since the alarming increase in greenhouse gases, all eyes have turned to hydrogen, which is considered one of the fuels of the future.

And now, researchers at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) have announced a new way of obtaining the wonder gas.

The recipe sounds like this: "Take a pot of scalding water, remove all the oxygen, mix in a bit of poisonous carbon monoxide, and add a pinch of hydrogen gas."

It might sound like a recipe for a witch's brew, but it is also the preferred environment for a microbe known as Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans.

The research team led by scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) reported the determination and analysis of the complete genome sequence of this organism.

Isolated from a hot spring on the Russian volcanic island of Kunashir, this microbe lives almost entirely on carbon monoxide.

While consuming this normally poisonous gas, the microbe mixes it with water, producing hydrogen gas as waste.

"C. hydrogenoformans is one of the fastest-growing microbes that can convert water and carbon monoxide to hydrogen," remarks TIGR evolutionary biologist Jonathan Eisen, senior author of the PLoS Genetics study.

"So if you're interested in making clean fuels, this microbe makes an excellent starting point."

The bug boasts at least five different forms of a protein machine, dubbed carbon monoxide deyhydrogenase that is able to manipulate the poisonous gas. Each form of the machine appears to allow the organism to use carbon monoxide in a different way.

Using these results, researchers want to find out what types of microbes are found in different hot springs and why.

"What we want to have is a field guide for these microbes, like those available for birds and mammals," Eisen says. "Right now, we can't even answer simple questions. Do similar hot springs, a world apart, share similar microbes? How do microbes move between hot springs? Our new work will help us find out."