Soil bugs quit sea for land later than speculated
January 16th, 2012 - 2:23 pm ICT by IANS ( Leave a comment )Washington, Jan 16 (IANS) Soil bacteria azospirillum quit the sea for land much later than speculated by scientists.
Igor Jouline, joint faculty professor of microbiology at Oak Ridge National Lab’s (ORNL) Institute for Computational Sciences, performed a genome sequence analysis of azospirillum.
The analysis indicates the shift may have occurred only 400 million years ago, rather than approximately two billion years earlier, as originally thought.
“Because these bacteria colonize roots of grasses and improve their growth and development, they might be important for bioenergy research,” Jouline said.
Jouline conducted the research with mircrobiologists Kristin Wuichet and Leonid Sukharnikov, molecular biologist Gladys Alexandre and Kirill Borziak, graduate student of genome science at the the ORNL.
Azospirillum is currently used as a biofertilizer for grasses and some other plants. Commercial fertilizers containing the bacteria are available worldwide.
-Indo-Asian News Service
st/rg/pg
- Bacteria lot smarter than believed - Jan 19, 2010
- Bacteria are big 'thinkers' in their own way - Jan 15, 2010
- Bacteria-inspired solar cell devices come closer to reality - Mar 24, 2011
- Polymer synthesis to pave way for more energy-efficient electronics - Jul 20, 2010
- 'Vampire' bug shows potential as living antibiotic - Nov 01, 2011
- New project to predict behaviour of ice sheets under changing climate - Mar 07, 2011
- Genetically altered trees could reduce global warming - Oct 02, 2010
- Cows' guts yield clues for new biofuels - Jan 28, 2011
- Infectious bugs alter DNA to become resistant - Nov 14, 2011
- New solar cell technology boosts efficiency of photovoltaics - Apr 30, 2011
- Grass could be bioenergy crop of the future, say Indian-origin scientists - Nov 02, 2010
- Quantum fluctuations are key in superconductors, reveal experiments - Jan 09, 2010
- How bacteria can clear mercury pollution in waterways - Oct 02, 2009
- Secret of bacteria's immune system unlocked - Nov 05, 2010
- Scientists sequence genome of sorghum, key food, biofuel crop - Feb 03, 2009
Tags: asian news, biofertilizer, commercial fertilizers, computational sciences, faculty professor, genome sequence analysis, graduate student, grasses, growth and development, indo, kirill, leonid, microbiology, million years, molecular biologist, news service, oak ridge national lab, ornl, rg, soil bacteria
