Washington, Sept 23 : A German-American research team of biologists and geochemists has discovered hitherto unknown anaerobic bacteria in marine sediments, which need only propane or butane for growth.

Ethane, propane butane, and methane are the major constituents of natural gas. Biological processes may lead to the degradation of these hydrocarbons in underground petroleum reservoirs and other geological habitats.

Now, new research has shown that the bacteria employ an unprecedented biochemical mechanism for transforming what are essentially un-reactive hydrocarbons into reactive metabolites, which may then be further oxidised to carbon dioxide.

Heinz Wilkes, a leading biogeochemist at GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), said, “the bacteria isolated here for the first time from marine sediments use sulphate instead of oxygen for respiration and utilize propane and butane as their sole source of carbon and energy”.

“These organisms are tough specialists that have become adapted to strictly utilising only these and no other substrates,” Wilkes said.

The findings appear in the current online issue of Nature. (With inputs from ANI)