MSU team proves that microbes swim to hydrogen gas

http://www.montana.edu/news/12258/msu-team-overcomes-challenges-proves-that-microbes-swim-to-hydrogen-gas

November 5, 2013 -- By Evelyn Boswell, MSU News Service

BOZEMAN – Scientists have long believed that microorganisms that produce methane swim toward the hydrogen gas they need to stay alive, but it has been too hard to prove in the lab.

Montana State University researchers have now overcome those challenges, allowing them to verify it for the first time, said Matthew Fields, an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Microbiology and co-author of a new paper describing the find.

In the process, the researchers discovered hydrogenotaxis, the movement of a biological cell toward hydrogen gas, and noticed that the cells were especially speedy when starving. They also made a video of the microorganism rushing toward its next meal. The methane-producing organism lives without oxygen, and it’s classified as Archaea, one of the three domains of life.

-----

Considering that speed relates to body length, Fields said the microbes moved faster than cheetahs, the fastest land animal on Earth.

-----