{"id":464073,"date":"2026-05-02T00:01:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/464073\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T00:01:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T00:01:26","slug":"chemistry-in-pictures-glowing-gassy-gut-microbes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/464073\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry in Pictures: Glowing gassy gut microbes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-content\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\">Although they may look like fancy tulips, the high-resolution 3D fluorescence images above actually show two different types of rumen ciliate. The single-celled organisms live in ruminant stomachs and come in many forms\u2014including fuzzy eggs, like the ones shown below. They may just hold the key to understanding cows\u2019 methane-rich, climate-warming burps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\">Ciliates living in an animal\u2019s rumen don\u2019t produce methane themselves, but researchers have noticed that their presence is associated with gassier beasts. Now Fei Xie and his colleagues have <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.adv4244\" shape=\"rect\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">discovered an organelle unique to rumen ciliates<\/a> that makes them the perfect neighbors to methane-producing archaea. Dubbed the hydrogenobody, the organelle produces hydrogen and removes oxygen, creating an optimal environment for such archaea. More hydrogenobodies seem to lead to more methane. Could they be the agricultural sector\u2019s next target for <a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/environment\/climate-change\/scientists-want-cut-livestocks-methane\/100\/i36\" shape=\"rect\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reducing livestock emissions<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>              <img data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/chempic---gut-garden---446203.webp\"  alt=\"Two brightly colored micrographs of microbes that look like fuzzy eggs. Both are colored with a rainbow of colors. The image on the right seems to have a bluish-green circle within the egg shape and under the hairs. \" class=\"w-100\" decoding=\"async\"\/><br \/>\n              Two brightly colored micrographs of microbes that look like fuzzy eggs. Both are colored with a rainbow of colors. The image on the right seems to have a bluish-green circle within the egg shape and under the hairs. <\/p>\n<p>              The 3D fluorescence of rumen ciliates Isotricha prostoma (left) and Dasytricha ruminantium. <\/p>\n<p>            Credit:<br \/>\n              Chuanqi Jiang, Jinying He, and Che Hu\/Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\">Credit: Chuanqi Jiang\/Jinying He\/Che Hu\/Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences\/Science. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.adv4244\" shape=\"rect\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read the paper in\u00a0Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\">Do science. Take pictures. Win money.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/collections\/chemistry-in-pictures\/submit-your-photo.html\" shape=\"rect\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Enter our photo contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/sections\/chemistry-in-pictures.html\" shape=\"rect\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See more Chemistry in Pictures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/staffDirectory\/Fionna-Samuels.html\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2025-fionna.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"img-fluid\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n        Chemical &amp; Engineering News<\/p>\n<p>          ISSN 0009-2347<\/p>\n<p>          Copyright \u00a9<br \/>\n            2026 American Chemical Society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Although they may look like fancy tulips, the high-resolution 3D fluorescence images above actually show two different&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[1669,18106,18,90894,19,17,20707,11692,203862,203861,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-464073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-bacteria","9":"tag-cows","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-greenhouse-gases","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-methane","15":"tag-microscopy","16":"tag-organelles","17":"tag-ruminants","18":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116502049286688590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}