New paper in Science

Nitrospira are the key nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in most natural habitats and wastewater treatment plants. So far, they were considered as metabolically specialized and their presence was commonly associated with nitrification.

Hanna Koch, Holger Daims, and a team of researchers from Vienna, Denmark, Germany, and France showed now that Nitrospira can also grow chemolithoautotrophically on hydrogen as alternative substrate. Being the first nitrifiers shown to have a lifestyle completely outside the N-cycle, Nitrospira are metabolically more flexible than previously assumed and their ecological roles must be reconsidered.

Links: