Evidence of rain-producing bacteria found in the atmosphere and snow

Brent Christner, LSU biotechnology professor, in collaboration with colleagues in Montana and France, recently found evidence of rain-producing bacteria that are widely distributed in the atmosphere. Small biological elements have a major impact on the snow cycle, affecting weather, agricultural productivity and even global warming. Christner and his colleagues published their findings in Science magazine on February 29.

Christner's team examined snow patterns from many locations around the globe and demonstrated the most flexible ice nucleus - the substrate that forms ice - is of biological origin. This is important because ice formation in the clouds is necessary to create snow and rain.Dust or soot molecules can act as an ice nucleus, but biological ice nuclei are capable of producing frost at much higher temperatures . If present in clouds, bio-ice nuclei can affect the process of creating snow showers.

Biological precipitation or bio-precipitation cycles, according to David Sands, Montana State University's professor of plant sciences and plant pathology, is basically: small groups of bacteria on the surface of plants. Wind rolls them into the atmosphere, and ice crystals form around them. Water coalescing on the crystal surface makes them become bigger and bigger. Ice crystals turn into rain and fall to the ground. Snow showers appear and the bacteria have a chance to return to the ground. If only one bacterium landed on the plant, they would multiply and form a group, so they themselves created a repeating cycle.'We think that if bacteria can't form ice, they can't go back to the ground,' Sands said, 'as long as it rains, the bacteria will still flourish.' Research work is done in many places. Sands and his colleagues found bacteria everywhere in the world including Montana, California, the eastern United States, Australia, South Africa, Morocco, France and Russia.

Brent Christner , LSU's biotechnology professor, is looking for patterns in Antarctica. (Photo: Brent Christner)

The results of the study could provide knowledge to reduce drought from Montana to Africa, Sands said. The concept of bacteria making rain is not too far away. Cloud formation by silver or dry ice has been done for over 60 years. Many ski resorts use frozen materials that contain ice-like nuclei to create snow when temperatures are a few degrees below freezing.

Christner said: 'My colleague, David Sands, of Montana State University, proposed the concept of ' bio-precipitation ' from over 25 years ago and only a few scientists have considered this issue seriously. However, evidence is being accumulated to support this idea. ' But, what makes this study more complicated is that most of the ice-like bacteria are pathogens for plants . The basic pathogens are germs, which can cause adverse effects of cold on the crop, leaving serious economic consequences on agricultural yields.

'The usual situation for bacterial pathogens is that other stages of their life cycle are often ignored because of their interest in the role of plants and animal health,' Christner explains. , 'moving in the air is an effective tactic to spread widely, so the ability to affect the pathogen's snowfall is an advantage in finding other victims'. It is possible that the atmosphere is an aspect of the cycle of infection in plants, bacteria destroy plants, multiply, and then fly into the air and are transported to other crops through snowfall .

'The role of tiny biological elements in the atmosphere is often overlooked. However, we found a bio-ice nucleus in the snow ice sample from Antarctica to Louisiana - they are everywhere. The result we found created an impetus for environmental researchers to start thinking about the role of these particles in the snow, " Christner said. This is the work of many disciplines, linking ecology, microbiology, plant pathology and learning gas. Provide a completely new research pathway and clearly demonstrate that we are only just beginning to understand the complex interaction between the earth's climate and the biosphere.