Just like cars need fuel to run, microorganisms need energy to live.
Just like cars need fuel to run, microorganisms need energy to live.
We know combustion engines, such as in cars or power plants, lose efficiency when they run faster—similarly, a new publication by a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist and his team reveals that microbes lose efficiency as their metabolic rates increase.
Microorganisms’ ability to use energy efficiently in various environmental conditions has consequences for the global climate and carbon cycle, and for biotechnological applications that could address global warming.
“Energetic scaling in microbial growth,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a new mathematical model for scientists to examine these metabolic processes in microorganisms.
Read more at Texas A&M AgriLife Communications
