Photosynthetic Bacteria Live Without Sunlight

Thomas Beatty of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and his team collected water expelled by a vent, known as the TY black smoker, off the cost of Central America. This vent is nearly 2.5 kilometers deep on the East Pacific Rise, a submerged mountain range that runs south from the Gulf of California. The team was able to grow photosynthetic sulfur bacteria from one of the samples.

Photosynthetic sulfur bacteria oxidize sulfur compounds to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds. They thrive in oxygen-free environments, such as hot springs. They can photosynthesize at extremely low light levels, but this is the first time they have been found in a sunlight-free environment.

This discovery suggests that photosynthetic bacteria may exist elsewhere in the Solar System, for example, in the underground oceans of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.