Research report 2020 - Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Elucidating the molecular tricks of energy extremophiles
Authors
Wagner, Tristan; Jespersen, Marion; Lemaire, Olivier
Departments
Max-Planck-Forschungsgruppe Mikrobielle Metabolismen
Summary
While our modern society is struggling to find new processes for greenhouse gas conversion and biofuel production, microorganisms at the bottom of the ocean have been performing these challenging reactions since billions of years using unique and, so far, mainly undescribed strategies. Beyond understanding the fundamental processes behind these primitive metabolisms, our goal is to discover how these exotic reactions are performed at the molecular level. Unveiling and taming these molecular secrets will open a new landscape for biotechnological application.