Newly Discovered Bacteria Help Keep Ecosystems in Balance

Abstract

Nitrogen is essential to all life on Earth. Tiny organisms, called microbes, help to make nitrogen available to all other living things. One group of microbes, called nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), help to remove excess nitrogen from the environment that can be dangerous to plants and animals. However, there is still a lot to learn about the distribution and function of NOB in nature. In the lab, we grew new types of NOB from rivers. By studying their DNA, we found that these NOB can gain energy in many ways and survive the stress of pollution. Similar NOB seem to be present all over Earth. Studying NOB can help us to understand how changes to the environment might affect microbes and their habitats.