Biocrust Microbes Enjoy a Buffet of Metabolites (IMAGE)

DOE/Joint Genome Institute

Biocrust Microbes Enjoy a Buffet of Metabolites

Caption

Using a set of tools that he calls 'exometabolomics," Berkeley Lab scientist Trent Northen and his team found that microbes in biocrusts target specific metabolites and rarely overlap in their substrate preferences. "The biocrusts are a big buffet and we find in our study that they each use different fractions of dissolved organic carbon, so it takes a community to consume a buffet," Northen said. The work was published Sept. 22, 2015 in Nature Communications.

Credit

Zosia Rostomian, Berkeley Lab

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