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17h ago

Scientists Find New Organelle in Cow Gut Microbes That Drives Methane

The finding pinpoints the cellular source of hydrogen that feeds methane-forming microbes.

Fluorescent microscope images of three ciliate protozoa from the rumen (first stomach) of cattle. The one on the left is egg-shaped and covered in waves of green, yellow and red hairlike cilia. In the center a clear, red goblet-shaped organism is topped by a bright orange shock of cilia. On the right is a green and yellow microbe that resembles an oval Koosh ball with a blue-green oval in the center. The center oval is the nucleus. These organisms have a newly discovered organelle that makes hydrogen and spurs other microbes to produce methane.
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Overview

  • The study in Science, published Thursday, identifies a single-membrane “hydrogenobody” in rumen ciliates that produces hydrogen used by methane-making archaea.
  • Researchers mapped 65 ciliate species from ruminants, including 45 never sequenced before, by isolating single cells to avoid DNA contamination.
  • Imaging shows the hydrogenobody clusters at the base of cilia and has one membrane, unlike hydrogenosomes in other microbes that have two.
  • Measurements from 100 dairy cows link higher ciliate loads with more methanogens and higher methane output, with Vestibuliferida standing out as strong contributors.
  • Scientists say the work suggests new methane-cutting targets, though past protozoa removal cut milk and meat yields and is hard to sustain on working farms.