By analyzing the DNA of an entire community of microorganisms in deep-sea sediment,researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute(MBARI)and the Joint Genome Institute have shown how some of these microbes could consume methane,an important contributor to global warming.Microbes in marine sediments are known to produce huge quantities of methane,but very little reaches the atmosphere.Scientists have speculated that most of this methane is consumed by other microbes that also live in the sediment.This DNA analysis identified a key group of microbes that consume methane by reversing the biochemical process used by methane producers.
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