Archaea Feed On Perchlorate

Abstract

Microbes of the archaea group have been found to feed on perchlorate (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1233957). The findings demonstrate that biological breakdown of perchlorate (ClO4 –) into chloride is more widespread than previously realized. Similar microbes may have helped create oxidizing conditions for life on a young Earth before the rise of photosynthesis. Most of the perchlorate in today’s environment comes from manufacturing and use of perchlorate compounds for rocket fuel. But perchlorate also forms naturally in the atmosphere, through processes such as lightning interacting with sea salt aerosols or reactions between ozone and chloride compounds. Several species of bacteria are known to enzymatically reduce perchlorate and chlorate (ClO3 –)—together called “(per)chlorate”—to O2 and Cl–. In the new work, a research team led by microbiology graduate student Martin G. Liebensteiner and professor Alfons J. M. Stams of Wageningen University, in the Netherlands, found that Archaeoglobus fulgidus, an ...