Uncovering potential autotrophs in coal seams: characterization, enrichment, and genome-resolved metabolisms of a subsurface coal seam microbiome.

Enriched coal seam microbiomes from the Appalachian Basin encode six potential autotrophic pathways, with the reductive glycine pathway being most prevalent.

• Why it matters: Understanding microbial carbon transformation in coal seams is crucial because these ecosystems harbor diverse autotrophs that could be harnessed for biotechnological applications, yet their metabolic strategies remain largely unexplored.
• What they did: Researchers characterized the geochemistry and microbiology of coal seam produced water, enriched the microbiome on H2:CO2, and used genome-resolved analyses to identify multiple autotrophic pathways in the microbial community.
• The result: Findings suggest a flexible carbon conversion strategy in coal seam microbes, indicating their potential as biocatalysts for sustainable chemical and fuel production through engineered microbial systems.