A naturalist perspective of microbiology: Examples from methanogenic archaea

Abstract

Storytelling has been the primary means of knowledge transfer over human history. The effectiveness and reach of stories are improved when the message is appropriate for the target audience. Oftentimes, the stories that are most well received and recounted are those that have a clear purpose and that are told from a variety of perspectives that touch on the varied interests of the target audience. Whether scientists realize or not, they are accustomed to telling stories of their own scientific discoveries through the preparation of manuscripts, presentations, and lectures. Perhaps less frequently, scientists prepare review articles or book chapters that summarize a body of knowledge on a given subject matter, meant to be more holistic recounts of a body of literature. Yet, by necessity, such summaries are often still narrow in their scope and are told from the perspective of a particular discipline. In other words, interdisciplinary reviews or book chapters tend to be the rarity rather than the norm. Here, we advocate for and highlight the benefits of interdisciplinary perspectives on microbiological subjects.

A self-sustaining serpentinization mega-engine feeds the fougerite nanoengines implicated in the emergence of guided metabolism

“…Competing with AVT, though assuming only acidic conditions, is Günter Wächtershäuser's theory that the origin of life involves the reduction of copious volcanic CO 2 through the reductive acetyl coenzyme-A pathway to acetate (Wächtershäuser, 1988)-the pathway that is now broadly, but not universally, accepted for this role (Huber and Wächtershäuser, 1997;Peretó et al, 1999;Martin andRussell, 2003, 2007;Say and Fuchs, 2010;Martin, 2020;Boyd et al, 2023). That life was first engaged in the reduction of oceanic CO 2 through the acetyl coenzyme-A pathway was incorporated in AVT and expressed in the (grossly) oversimplified empirical Equation 1 (Russell and Martin, 2004)…”

Low-temperature hydrogen production and consumption in partially-hydrated peridotites in Oman: implications for stimulated geological hydrogen production

“…Roughly 30% of archaeal and bacterial genomes in a database compiled in 2015 (Peters et al, 2015) encode a homolog of a [NiFe]-and [FeFe]-hydrogenase, indicating that populations from both Type I and II waters are especially poised to metabolize H 2 relative to average archaeal or bacterial organisms. The hydrogenase homologs were further classified into phylogenetic groups, which allows for the prediction of the directionality of the enzymes (Peters et al, 2015;Søndergaard et al, 2016;Boyd et al, 2023). For example, group 1 and 3 [NiFe]-hydrogenases tend to function in H 2 oxidation, whereas group 2 [NiFe]-hydrogenases enzymes tend to function either oxidatively or as H 2 sensors.…”

A concept for international societally relevant microbiology education and microbiology knowledge promulgation in society

“…Microbes were the first and only forms of life for the first 3 billion years of evolution (e.g., Bertrand, 2015 ; Knoll, 2015 ; Mahendrarajah et al., 2023 ). During this time, they shaped planetary surface chemistry in such a way that complex life forms could develop, evolve and diversify into the current members of the biosphere (Sousa et al., 2013 ; Ehrlich et al., 2015 ; Jelen et al., 2016 ; Moore et al., 2017 ; Raanan et al., 2018 ; Boyd et al., 2023 ; Falkowski, 2023 ; Goldman & Kaçar, 2023 ; López‐García & Moreira, 2023 ). Microbes colonise and pervasively influence all life forms, cycle elements and hence wastes of all organisms, including those generated by human activities (agricultural, industrial, etc.…”