Network of bacterias: On Earth and not on Pandora

In accordance with the discoveries that could be made in the deep-sequel "avatar", there is a bacteria that is capable of conducting electrical currents on the ocean bottom, so that related chemical reactions can go on relatively large distances.



This phenomenon, discovered only because the researchers studied the remains of sediments used in another experiment, can add a new mechanism in our understanding of the biochemistry of Earth.

"Circulation of materials and life on the seabed and the soil generally in any place where a lack of oxygen - that can help us understand these processes," - said Lars Peter Nielsen, a microbiologist at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, co-author of the study, issued on 24 February in the journal Nature.

The original purpose of the study team was not a Nielsen study of electrical conductivity of the seabed, but very interesting types of sulfur bacteria found on the bottom of the bay city of Aarhus. To determine their chemical activity, the researchers kept a few glasses of sea water and slurry without sulfur bacteria for comparison. When experiments were completed, of these glasses is practically forgotten. Then, after a few weeks, the researchers noticed a strange pattern of activity. Changing the oxygen content in the water over the upper part of the draft immediately lead to chemical variations in several levels below. The distance was so great, and response time - the little that could not be explained by conventional methods of chemical transport - diffusion or slow drift from the region with a high concentration in the region with the lowest.

Initially, scientists were puzzled. Then they realized that the process is understandable, if the bacteria are located on the upper level are connected with the bacteria located below. Anything that affects the processing of oxygen at the top of the bacterium, also affects the sulfur bacteria that are in the lower layers. This could explain the observed relationship, and the electrical nature of this relationship would provide the speed.

"Hypotheses of this kind at one time would have been considered heretical" - written by Kenneth Nilson, a microbiologist at the University of Southern California, in the accompanying commentary in the journal Nature. Reserve in the centimeter "does not look like a great distance, but the bacteria is approximately 10000 length of her body, equivalent to 20 kilometers in human understanding."

In recent years, scientists have found microbial species from the outer membrane covered with enzymes for the transport of electrons or "spike" conductive threads, and is calculated micrometers. They were used to create experimental microbial fuel cells. It is known that these species may be found in the silt of the bay city of Aarhus. These sediments also contain minor amounts of pyrite, electrically conductive mineral.

The upper level contains more silt and hydrogen ions in low concentrations, and this can be explained only by the electrochemical reaction with electrons conducted from the outside, "said Nielsen.

He called the information obtained "amazing" and said that they "may be related to the transfer of energy and the flow of electrons in a variety of ecosystems.

Over time, they may even find its application in biological treatment systems, which use bacteria as well as in the processes of carbon sequestration and energy generation. When asked whether he had seen the film Avatar, a storyline which is referred to the forest, connected by electrochemical network, Nielsen said: "One of my colleagues looked at him and immediately sent me a message:" You discovered the secret of "Avatar"! Come see! "The resemblance is truly remarkable.

He continued: "I do not think that the networks that we see here, there is some" spirit ". This may be only a matter of energy. But the connection is.