There would be no oxygen on Earth – and neither would humans – if there were no Sunlight, thanks to which plants make photosynthesis and produce oxygen. Danish scientists have made the unexpected discovery that oxygen is also produced without light, by microbes in the dark and sunless depths of the oceans.
Countless numbers of microorganisms live in seawater at various depths and some of them seem to be able to produce oxygen, although they do not photosynthesize. Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark, led by Assistant Professor Beate Kraft of the Department of Biology, published the paper in the journal Science.
Oxygen is vital for life on Earth and almost everything is produced through photosynthesis by plants and microorganisms, such as cyanobacteria. So far few microbes have been discovered capable of producing oxygen without sunlight, but they have been found in very limited quantities and in very specific environments. This picture seems to be changing with the oceanic bacterium Nitrosopumilus maritimus and its “cousins”, which abound in the oceans, playing a key role in the nitrogen cycle (oxidizing ammonia to produce nitrogen), something for which they need oxygen.
Nitrogen production requires oxygen and, as Kraft said, until now it has been an enigma how such microorganisms can multiply even when transported to waters without any oxygen. In fact, in some areas of the sea, according to researcher Don Canfield, “these germs are so common that every fifth cell in a bucket of seawater comes from them.”
Laboratory studies have finally shown that these microbes do not need oxygen from the environment, as they produce their own and even in a completely dark environment. Scientists are still unsure how these germs produce oxygen in the dark without photosynthesis, as they seem to be using a hitherto unknown biological mechanism.
“We now have the opportunity to discover a whole new metabolism that works in the oceans, about which we knew nothing until now,” said researcher Don Canfield, who did not rule out that the biological mechanism itself exists in other organisms. something that remains to be discovered.
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