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Zhuqing Mao, a biology doctoral researcher from Konstanz, examined a sewage sludge sample and discovered a second microorganism that also gets its energy from phosphite.

The Konstanz biologists led by Bernhard Schink placed this bacterium in an environment in which it had only phosphite as a food source.

"This bacterium subsists on phosphite oxidation, and as far as we know, exclusively on this reaction. It covers its energy metabolism this way, and can build up its cell substance from CO2 at the same time," explains Schink.

"This bacterium is an autotrophic organism, like a plant. It does, however, not need light like a plant, as it draws its energy from phosphite oxidation."

"What was very surprising was that during its oxidation, phosphite is apparently coupled directly to the energy-carrier precursor AMP, whereby the energy carrier ADP is created. In a subsequent reaction, two of the generated ADPs are converted to one ATP, on which the organism ultimately lives," Nicolai Müller outlines the reaction pathway.