Marine bacteria can create environmentally friendly energy source

Bacteria in the world’s oceans can efficiently exploit solar energy to grow, thanks to a unique light-capturing pigment. "It was long thought that algae were the only organisms in the seas that could use sunlight to grow." Many marine bacteria have a gene in their DNA that codes for a new type of light-capturing pigment: proteorhodopsin. Oesearchers collected 20 marine bacteria from different ocean areas and mapped their genomes. Several of them proved to contain the pigment proteorhodopsin. This made it possible to run a series of experiments that clearly show that the pigment converts solar energy to energy for growth.