New paper in Nature

Milucka J, Ferdelman TG, Polerecky L, Franzke D, Wegener G, Schmid M, Lieberwirth I, Wagner M, Widdel F and Kuypers MMM. 2012. Zero-valent sulphur is a key intermediate in marine methane oxidation. Nature doi:10.1038/nature11656
Markus Schmid and Michael Wagner contributed Raman microspectrometry analyses in this international collaboration to discover that the archaea responsible for the anaerobic oxidation of methane also reduce sulfate. Disulphide formed in this reaction is then consumed by deltaproteobacterial partners rendering the archaeal sulfate reduction more energy efficient. Thus, the metabolic model of anaerobic methane oxidation has to be revised by integrating the two newly described metabolic processes.