Author: Jennifer Leman / Source: Science News
Deep below Earth’s surface, life finds a way.
Traces of cyanobacteria have been found more than 600 meters underground in a rocky outcrop in Spain, suggesting the microbes can survive without sunlight.
Instead of photosynthesizing like others of their kind, these light-starved microorganisms may create energy using hydrogen, researchers report October 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Scientists initially were drilling for other types of bacteria deep below ground, says study coauthor Fernando Puente-Sánchez, a geomicrobiologist at the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid. When the team discovered the cyanobacteria, it was “unexpected, counterintuitive,” he says.
Cyanobacteria helped create the air we breathe today, first belching oxygen into the atmosphere over 3.2 billion years ago (SN Online: 9/8/15). Since the microbes’ metabolism typically depends on photosynthesis, they’re usually…
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