Methanoliparia: One Archaeon That Has It All For Oil Decomposition

Underground and undersea oil deposits are home to a special kind of archaebacteria that utilizes natural oil as a source of food and energy. These bacteria degrade natural oil into methane. Before recent research conducted at Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, it was thought that this type of conversion was only possible in complex teamwork between different organisms, usually two archeal partners. Recent research has allowed scientists to cultivate an archeon called Methanoliparia which is capable of handling this complex reaction all by itself. 

Methanoliparia is in fact a hybrid of oil-degrading and methanogenic bacteria. The presence of blueprints of enzymes capable of decomposing various hydrocarbons gives Methanoliparia this unique capability. The experiments performed at Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology included offering the microbes various kinds of food and using a variety of different methods to keep a close eye on how Methanoliparia deal with it. An especially astonishing feat that was observed by the researchers was the archaeon microbe activating all the different hydrocarbons with one and the same enzyme. 

These microbes were observed to directly utilize long-chain hydrocarbons for methanogenesis. Even complicated hydrocarbons possessing ring-like or aromatic structures appeared not too bulky for Methanoliparia. This implies the discovery of a previously completely unknown pathway of methanogenesis. The cells of Methanoliparia cultured for the study originate from the Shengli oil field which is one of China’s largest oil fields. Genetic analyses of Methanoliparia species tell that they are distributed all over the world, even at sea depths. 

The potential benefits of these organisms predict newer revolutions in natural gas industries. 

References

Zhou, Z., Zhang, Cj., Liu, Pf. et al. Non-syntrophic methanogenic hydrocarbon degradation by an archaeal species. Nature (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04235-2