RIKEN scientists looking for clues to the origins of life on Earth have discovered a new microbe that may shed light on how organisms first developed on Earth, the search for life elsewhere in the universe and how to improve microbial factories.

Their research, conducted in the rugged, deep-water-fed springs of northern California, uncovered a microorganism that converts carbon dioxide into other chemicals. This process not only generates energy, but employs a previously unknown metabolic pathway, suggesting novel methods of carbon fixation that may mimic the earliest forms of energy metabolism on our planet.