New protein discovered gives insights to iron's fate underground
Monday, August 20, 2012 - 06:20
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org) -- It's almost an evil twin story: a protein that steals electrons from iron in one microbe looks a lot like one that adds electrons in another microbe, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of East Anglia. Their survey of the genes of common groundwater bacterium Sideroxydans lithotrophicus ES-1, which removes electrons from iron, revealed that it contained genes in common with Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, which adds electrons to iron.