Nature: Chinese and foreign scientists cultivated the archaea that degrade petroleum and produce methane for the first time

Petroleum hydrocarbons can be converted into methane through the degradation process of methanogenesis, which is usually coordinated by a variety of microorganisms (including bacteria and methanogenic archaea)

The research results were published in "Nature" magazine, entitled "Non-syntrophic methanogenic hydrocarbon degradation by an archaeal species"

Professor Wegener explained: "Ca.

Researchers have successfully cultivated these microorganisms in the laboratory, so they can study the underlying process in depth

"Its genes carry the codes for enzymes that can activate and break down various hydrocarbons

Researchers use different foods to cultivate these microorganisms

Surprisingly, this archaea used the same enzyme to activate all the different hydrocarbons

"We didn't know until now that there are methanogenic microorganisms that directly use long-chain alkanes," Laso-Pérez said

The archaea Ca.

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Zhou, Z.