Whose Planet Is This, Anyway?

Elio Schaechter

Dr. Saier’s ClassSept. 28, 2011

Google Blog “Small Things Considered”

Microbes:

•Are the source of all other life forms•Are much more diverse than plants and

animals •Are enormously abundant,

about 50% of the total biomass•Grow in virtually everywhere on earth

where there is liquid water

Number of People on Earth:6.5 followed by 8 zeroes

6,500,000,000

Number of Bacteria On Earth:about 10 followed by 30 zeroes

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

There are about 3 Tons of Bacteria for Every Human Being on Earth!

The elephant’s weight is that of the bacteria per human being

What would happen if all microbes on Earth went on strike?

•Plants would run out of usable nitrogen in about one week

•Plants would run out of CO2 in about a year

•We’d start to run out of food in less than a year

•We’d gradually lose the oxygen in the air

•Our climate would change drastically (in ways difficult to predict)

The White Cliffs of Dover

Microbial mats the size of Alabama

How to study this: begin at a deep hole in the ground, such as a gold mine several kilometers deep. Drill for water, discard the first few day’s flow.

Find ~ 3-4 104 bact/ml. Oxidize H, reduce sulfate

Desulfotomaculum predomintes (10% of spores survive 15 min at 140° C)

Li-Hung Lin et al (Int’l consortium). Science, 2006

In 1998, Thomas Gold, wrote a highly influential book, The Deep Hot Biosphere. •there is abundant microbial life in the water within the pores, cracks and fissures of the rocks beneath our feet.• hydrocarbons were not derived from fossils but rather were created early in the life of the planet by chemical and physical processes below the crust, including radiation.

Single cells in populations

– substrate tracking autoradiography fluorescence in situ hybridization (STARFISH) simultaneously detects specific cell types via 16S rRNA probe and activity via microautoradiography

Single cells in isolation– •nano-cell biology

ultrahigh resolution fluorescence microscopy + quantum dots, electro cryo-tomography, Raman spectroscopy + metallic nanoparticle-FRET•single cell genome sequencing

Short Break

Microbes Influence

the Weather

Todd JD et al. Science 2007

Everybody is always talking about the weather

DMSP=dimethylsulfoniopropionate

Negative feedback loop: the more DMS is made, the more clouds are formed, the less sunlight shines on the ocean, the less photosynthesis is carried out,the less DMSP is made, the less DMS is produced, etc.

Extremophiles

Bacteria Of Boiling Hot Springs In Yellowstone National Park

Photosynthetic bacteria and

lichens in Antarctic sandstone

Algae in silica granule from Yellowstone (pH 1.0)

The reactor at Chernobyl

The “Chernobyl mold”

This fungus grows better with radiation

SYMBIOSES

Red:archaea (CH4 + 2 H2O CO2 + 4 H2) Green; bacteria (5 H2 + SO4

2- H2S + 4 H2O)

Prokaryotic symbiosis

Deep sea

Hydrothermal

vents

• BIOFILMS

• VIRUSES

Forest Rohwer

this is equivalent in weight to 75 million blue whales!

Curtis A. Suttle

wow!

One teaspoonful of ocean water contains about one

million bacteria

The total amounts to the weight of about 100 million

Blue Whales!

Thanks for Listening