Deep-sea photosynthesis

Deep-sea photosynthesis

from the June 23, 2005 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005 /0623/p17s02-stss.html

It may be pitch black at nearly 8,000 feet below the ocean's surface. But scientists have found a new organism there that ekes out its living through photosynthesis - turning light and nutrients into the energy it needs to survive. The discovery extends the domain of light-loving organisms to environments once deemed inhospitable to them. It also reinforces speculation about the range of environments suitable for life elsewhere in the solar system.

The green sulfur-loving bacteria, dubbed GSB1, relies on the faint glow emitted from deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The bacteria gathers the feeble light via receptors that scientists liken to tiny satellite dishes for their ability to pull in weak radiation. Researchers from the United States, Canada, and Bermuda discovered GSB1 during a research cruise over the East Pacific Rise, where magma wells up to form new material for the Earth's crust. Its findings are in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.