{"id":25186,"date":"2025-08-22T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=25186"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:59:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:59:54","slug":"microbes-collaborate-to-consume-ocean-methane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/microbes-collaborate-to-consume-ocean-methane\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists reveal how microbes collaborate to consume potent greenhouse gas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                          \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/08\/methane-microbes-el-naggar-top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/08\/methane-microbes-el-naggar-top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/08\/methane-microbes-el-naggar-top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/08\/methane-microbes-el-naggar-top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Bubbles rise from the ocean floor while a few sea creatures look on\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Methane bubbles flow out of sediment on the ocean floor. (Image source: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=science-and-technology\">Science and Technology<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Scientists reveal how microbes collaborate to consume potent greenhouse gas<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Microbes that filter methane from the ocean floor may hold new clues to addressing climate change, USC Dornsife researchers and collaborators find.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Jim Key<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">August 22, 2025<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 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\n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Key points:\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n      <ul>\n              <li><p>Scientists discovered deep-sea microbes using bio-electrical conductors to collaborate and consume methane, a potent greenhouse gas, before it escapes into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n              <li><p>This is the first direct evidence of how these natural marine microbial partners transmit electricity between cells.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n              <li><p>Understanding how these electric microbial partnerships work could inspire new approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n          <\/ul>\n  <\/div>\n  \n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Methane \u2014 a potent greenhouse gas \u2014 constantly seeps from the ocean floor and can rise into the atmosphere. Now, an international team led by scientists with the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences has uncovered how tiny microorganisms work together as a living electrical network to consume some of this gas before it escapes, acting as a powerful living filter.<\/p>\n<p>By revealing how these microbes naturally reduce methane emissions, the findings could lead to innovative strategies to better control methane release in both natural and engineered environments.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.adw4289\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The study<\/a>, published in the journal <em>Science Advances<\/em>, sheds light on a unique partnership between two very different microbes: anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB).<\/p>\n<p>Alone, neither microbe can consume methane. When ANME break down methane, the process releases electrons that must be offloaded \u2014 a process known as a redox reaction, in which electrons move from one molecule to another \u2014 much like how humans rely on oxygen to accept electrons. Without an electron acceptor, methane consumption stalls.<\/p>\n<p>This is where their bacterial partners step in.<\/p>\n<p>While unable to consume methane themselves, the SRB help by accepting the electrons released during the process and transferring them to SRB\u2019s electron acceptor, sulfate, which powers their own metabolism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese two very different microbes come together into physically interconnected bundles,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/moh-el-naggar\/\">Moh El-Naggar<\/a>, Dean\u2019s Professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/physics\/\">Physics and Astronomy<\/a> and professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/chemistry\/\">chemistry<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bisc\/\">biological sciences<\/a> at USC Dornsife, and one of the study\u2019s lead researchers. \u201cAnd the whole process works because conductive redox proteins link them up into functioning electrical circuits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Using specialized electrochemical methods, the international research team \u2014 including scientists from Caltech, Peking University and the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology \u2014 measured this electron exchange in the lab for the first time, using samples collected from different marine methane seeps, including the Mediterranean Sea, Guaymas Basin and the California coast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese microbial partnerships act as natural sentries, playing a crucial role in limiting the release of methane into the ocean and atmosphere,\u201d said Hang Yu, the study\u2019s lead author, who began this research nine years ago during his PhD at Caltech and focused on it as a postdoctoral fellow at USC Dornsife. Now an assistant professor at Peking University, Yu added, \u201cBy uncovering how these partnerships function, we gain insight into how life has evolved over billions of years, even in extreme environments, to consume potent greenhouse gases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The researchers say the discovery offers new insight into how unseen microbial activity may influence Earth\u2019s systems in ways we\u2019re only beginning to understand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may surprise people to know that microbes, even in the remotest of places, work together in sophisticated ways that influence processes on a planetary scale,\u201d said Victoria Orphan, James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology at Caltech and co-author of the study. \u201cThis discovery, the result of nearly a decade of multidisciplinary research, is a testament to persistence and collaboration in science. It underscores how much we still have to learn about the microbial ecosystems we depend on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the study<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The research was conducted by an international team that also included Shuai Xu and Yamini Jangir, former USC and Caltech postdoctoral scholars, and Gunter Wegener, a senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology. The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Germany\u2019s Excellence Initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Related Articles\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/how-climate-finance-to-help-poor-countries-became-a-global-shell-game-donors-have-counted-fossil-fuel-projects-airports-and-even-ice-cream-shops\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >How climate finance to help poor countries became a global shell game<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/two-iconic-coral-species-are-now-functionally-extinct-off-florida-study-finds\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >2 iconic coral species are now functionally extinct off Florida, study finds \u2013 we witnessed the reef\u2019s bleaching and\u00a0devastation<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/trumps-words-arent-stopping-many-countries-from-setting-higher-climate-goals\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Trump\u2019s words aren\u2019t stopping China, Brazil and many other countries from setting higher climate goals, but progress is\u00a0slow<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microbes that filter methane from the ocean floor may hold new clues to addressing climate change, USC Dornsife researchers and collaborators find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":25188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[66,67,1869,216,60],"class_list":["post-25186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-and-technology","category-sustainability","tag-climate-change","tag-marine-and-environmental-biology","tag-microbiology","tag-physics-and-astronomy","tag-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ 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