Methane is a valuable energy source and at the same time a harmful greenhouse gas. In nature, it is formed by degradation of biomass. Fermenting bacteria and certain unicellular microorganisms, so-called archaea (photo), interact.
Sascha Zoske Blattmacher in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung. Follow I follow
Researchers at the TU Darmstadt, together with colleagues from Freiburg and Bern, have now identified an enzyme that makes the synthesis of methane from end products of fermentation energetically possible. It is an oxidoreductase that sits in the membrane of the fermenting bacterium Syntrophus aciditrophicus.