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How microbes clean the atmosphere

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11 Feb, 2025

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

Microbes are microscopic living things found in water, soil, the air and animals’ bodies. There are millions of microbes within the human body. Also known as microorganisms, some microbes make people unwell, while others are important for our health. The most common types are bacteria, viruses and fungi.

While microbes often get a bad rap, they can be beneficial in surprising ways, including by helping to remove harmful carbon monoxide (CO) from the atmosphere.

Over two billion tonnes of the deadly gas are released into the atmosphere globally each year; microbes consume about 250 million tonnes of this, reducing CO to safer levels. Now, Australian researchers have made a significant discovery about the way microbes carry out this important task.

Their study, which was led by Monash University and has been published in Nature Chemical Biology, investigated how microbes consume atmospheric CO at an atomic level. It found that they use a special enzyme, called the CO dehydrogenase, to extract energy from the universally present but highly toxic gas.

Co-first author Ashleigh Kropp, from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s (BDI) Greening lab and The University of Melbourne’s Grinter lab, said the study showed for the first time how this enzyme extracts atmospheric CO and powers cells.

“This enzyme is used by trillions of microbes in our soils and waters. These microbes consume CO for their own survival, but in the process inadvertently help us,” Kropp explained.

Co-first author Dr David Gillett, who completed his PhD research in the Greening lab, described the phenomenon as a fantastic example of microbial ‘ingenuity’, demonstrating how life has evolved ways to turn something toxic into something useful.

“These microbes help clean our atmosphere,” Gillett said. “This counteracts air pollution, which kills many millions of people each year, and also reduces global warming given CO is indirectly a greenhouse gas.”

While the team’s discovery is unlikely to be directly used to combat or monitor CO emissions, it deepens our knowledge of how the atmosphere is regulated and how it might respond to future changes.

Professor Chris Greening, co-senior author and head of BDI’s Global Change Program, said the discovery highlighted the broader importance of microbes.

“Microbes play countless roles essential for both human and planetary health. Yet, because they’re invisible and often misunderstood, their contributions frequently go unnoticed,” he said.

Kropp said microbes are a big reason why our air was breathable. “They make half the oxygen we breathe and detoxify various pollutants like CO. It’s crucial we better understand and appreciate how they support our own survival,” she said.

The full paper, titled ‘Quinone extraction drives atmospheric carbon monoxide oxidation in bacteria’, can be read here.

Image caption: The molecular architecture of the specialised enzyme that allows microbes to consume toxic CO from the atmosphere. Image credit: Ashleigh Kropp and Dr David Gillett.

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Government consulting on sustainable investment labelling

Government consulting on sustainable investment labelling

The Australian Government is starting consultation on sustainable investment product labelling, which is designed to give investors more confidence to put more capital to work in sustainable products.

The federal government said the release of this paper is a key step in implementing its Sustainable Finance Roadmap — designed to help mobilise the capital required for Australia to become a renewable energy superpower, modernising the financial markets and maximising the economic opportunities from net zero.

This consultation paper seeks views from investors, companies and the broader community on a framework for sustainable investment product labels.

These labels are designed to help investors and consumers identify, compare and make informed decisions about sustainable investment products to understand what ‘sustainable’, ‘green’ or similar words mean when they’re applied to financial products.

The government said a more robust and clear product-labelling framework will help investors and consumers invest in sustainable products with confidence and help tackle greenwashing.

This phase of consultation will run from 18 July to 29 August and help the government refine its design principles for the framework.

The consultation paper is available on the Treasury consultation hub.

Image credit: iStock.com/wenich-mit

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