Discovery fleshes out metabolism of key environmental and energy bacteria
Thursday, February 5, 2009 - 07:57
in Biology & Nature
An international collaboration of researchers has discovered a new enzyme in a species of bacteria with potential environmental cleanup and energy roles. This is the first multi-protein enzyme of its kind. Although many microbes use a single-protein version to consume certain food, the new study suggests that dozens of bacteria use only the multi-protein one instead. This advance in understanding of the microbe's metabolism will help researchers use the bugs to clean up toxic or radioactive pollutants...