Bizarre & wonderful · Earlier selection
Ocean bacteria share the work of dismantling a stubborn molecule
MIT researchers have found that different marine bacteria can cooperate to break down fucoidan, a complex carbohydrate produced by algae.
The 14 September report describes strains specialising in different parts of the molecule. Combining complementary strains made breakdown more effective in the experiments. The work could help explain how carbon moves through ocean ecosystems, rather than showing that one bacterium can consume every kind of marine carbon.
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