A rice paddy bacterium can break down an ozone-harming gas plants release
Wang X, Wang H, Wang X, Zhang M, Cui Y
Soil Health
Waterlogged soil in rice fields, backyard ponds, or nearby wetlands hosts bacteria that quietly consume chloromethane, a gas that plants and soil naturally release and that slowly erodes the ozone shield overhead.
Plants release small amounts of chloromethane, a gas that drifts into the upper atmosphere and chips away at the ozone layer. Researchers discovered a bacterium living in the oxygen-starved mud of rice paddies that can consume and destroy this gas. Decoding its genetic blueprint is the groundwork for understanding how these soil microbes work and how much they offset plant emissions in farming ecosystems.
Key Findings
Strain ZGZL degrades chloromethane under fully anaerobic conditions, the oxygen-free environment characteristic of flooded rice paddy soil
The bacterium has a compact genome of 2.04 Mb with a G+C content of 52.56%, assembled from metagenomic sequencing rather than lab culture
This is the first genomic characterization of an anaerobic chloromethane-degrading member of the family Oscillospiraceae
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists sequenced the genome of a newly identified soil bacterium, Oscillospiraceae strain ZGZL, that breaks down chloromethane without oxygen. Found in rice paddy soil, this microbe offers a biological clue to how waterlogged farmland soils may help neutralize a gas that plants naturally emit and that depletes the ozone layer.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Metagenome-assembled genome of Oscillospiraceae bacterium strain ZGZL, an anaerobic chloromethane-degrading bacterium enriched from rice paddy soil.
Oscillospiraceae sp. strain ZGZL is an anaerobic bacterium capable of degrading chloromethane. Here, we report the metagenome-assembled genome sequence of strain ZGZL, which has a genome size of 2....
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