Ocean Bacteria Can Harvest Energy from Sunlight for Survival

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100427171754.htm

ScienceDaily (May 3, 2010) — Bacteria in the ocean can harvest light energy from sunlight to promote survival thanks to a unique photoprotein.

"It was long thought that phytoplankton were the only organisms in the sea that could harvest the energy from sunlight for growth," says Dr. Jarone Pinhassi, scientist in marine microbiology at Linnaeus University, Sweden. These microscopic planktonic organisms carry out the same chlorophyll driven photosynthesis process as green plants on land.

In 2000, American scientists discovered that many marine bacteria contain a gene in their genome that encodes a new kind of light-harvesting pigment: proteorhodopsin. Proteorhodopsin is related to the pigment in the retina that enables human vision in less intense light. Now, a decade later, the first direct evidence for the functioning of proteorhodopsin in native marine bacteria is presented, based on mutational analysis in a marine bacterium. At the same time the present study shows that proteorhodopsin-mediated phototrophy (the process of acquiring energy from light) allows marine bacteria to better survive periods of starvation in an often nutrient-depleted ocean.

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