Chapter 10
The Grand Microbial Variety Show
Aharon Oren
Abstract In the past decades, many novel microbial processes were discovered, and
many old dogmas about the apparent limits to what microbes can do were upended.
As a result, our understanding of the roles that microorganisms play in the global
cycles of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus has greatly increased. This essay
explores a large number of processes that were recently discovered and processes for
which important new insights were obtained. These include autotrophic nitrification;
anaerobic oxidation of ammonia (the anammox reacti\on); diverse ways in which
methane can be oxidized in anoxic environments; different ways in which chemoautotrophic sulfur bacteria can cope with lack of oxygen; new insights in the
anaerobic degradation of hydrocarbons; newly discovered possibilities for
bacteriochlorophyll-driven anoxygenic photosynthesis; and retinal protein-driven
photoheterotrophy. I also discuss the diversity in biochemical pathways used by
different types of prokaryotes to achieve identical goals, as well as the question as to
how some prokaryotes can make a living on chemical reactions that yield very low
amounts of energy.
Het werd een streven om steeds maar weer nieuwe, oogenschijnlijk ontoegankelijke,
gebieden voor de microben te ontsluiten. De eene specialiteit onder de microben was nog
niet ontdekt, of een andere, die nog verrassender kunststukken verrichtte, werd reeds
aangekondigd:
het
microbiologisch
schouwtoneel
geleek
één
grootsch
natuurwetenschappelijk variété!
[It became a pursuit to continuously unlock new, seemingly inaccessible areas for the
microbes. Barely had one specialist among the microbes been discovered when another
one that performed even more surprising feats was already announced; the microbiological
theater resembled one grand natural-science variety show.]—(Kluyver 1924; translation:
Aharon Oren)
A. Oren (*)
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
e-mail: aharon.oren@mail.huji.ac.il
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_10
161
The Grand Microbial Variety Show
Aharon Oren
Abstract In the past decades, many novel microbial processes were discovered, and
many old dogmas about the apparent limits to what microbes can do were upended.
As a result, our understanding of the roles that microorganisms play in the global
cycles of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus has greatly increased. This essay
explores a large number of processes that were recently discovered and processes for
which important new insights were obtained. These include autotrophic nitrification;
anaerobic oxidation of ammonia (the anammox reacti\on); diverse ways in which
methane can be oxidized in anoxic environments; different ways in which chemoautotrophic sulfur bacteria can cope with lack of oxygen; new insights in the
anaerobic degradation of hydrocarbons; newly discovered possibilities for
bacteriochlorophyll-driven anoxygenic photosynthesis; and retinal protein-driven
photoheterotrophy. I also discuss the diversity in biochemical pathways used by
different types of prokaryotes to achieve identical goals, as well as the question as to
how some prokaryotes can make a living on chemical reactions that yield very low
amounts of energy.
Het werd een streven om steeds maar weer nieuwe, oogenschijnlijk ontoegankelijke,
gebieden voor de microben te ontsluiten. De eene specialiteit onder de microben was nog
niet ontdekt, of een andere, die nog verrassender kunststukken verrichtte, werd reeds
aangekondigd:
het
microbiologisch
schouwtoneel
geleek
één
grootsch
natuurwetenschappelijk variété!
[It became a pursuit to continuously unlock new, seemingly inaccessible areas for the
microbes. Barely had one specialist among the microbes been discovered when another
one that performed even more surprising feats was already announced; the microbiological
theater resembled one grand natural-science variety show.]—(Kluyver 1924; translation:
Aharon Oren)
A. Oren (*)
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, The Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
e-mail: aharon.oren@mail.huji.ac.il
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_10
161