Soil microbes use different and more efficient metabolic pathways than previously thought (IMAGE)
Caption
A new understanding of how soil communities metabolize carbon via different pathways is shown in a cutaway of a cell in the foreground, which contains a double helix figure mapping a pathway on a screen and enzyme "stations" represented as robotic arms along a conveyor belt that efficiently moves the successive substrates. In the background, the "traditional view" of maintenance and its consequent higher excess respiration is depicted as a less efficient metabolic process, showing a double helix figure in another cutaway cell shoveling carbon into an old boiler, and CO2 billowing from the chimney.
Credit
Victor O. Leshyk, Center for Ecosystem Science and Society
Usage Restrictions
Image may only be used with appropriate credit, and for not-for-profit purposes.
License
Original content