extracellular electron transfer
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceA Membrane-Bound Cytochrome Enables Methanosarcina acetivorans To Conserve Energy from Extracellular Electron TransferThe discovery of a methanogen that can conserve energy to support growth solely from the oxidation of organic carbon coupled to the reduction of an extracellular electron acceptor expands the possible environments in which methanogens might thrive. The potential importance of c-type cytochromes for extracellular electron transfer to syntrophic bacterial partners and/or Fe(III) minerals in some Archaea was previously...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceHow Thermophilic Gram-Positive Organisms Perform Extracellular Electron Transfer: Characterization of the Cell Surface Terminal Reductase OcwAThermophilic Gram-positive organisms were recently shown to be a promising class of organisms to be used in bioelectrochemical systems for the production of electrical energy. These organisms present a thick peptidoglycan layer that was thought to preclude them to perform extracellular electron transfer (i.e., exchange catabolic electrons with solid electron acceptors outside the cell). In this paper, we describe the structure and...
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceIron Corrosion via Direct Metal-Microbe Electron TransferThe anaerobic corrosion of iron structures is expensive to repair and can be a safety and environmental concern. It has been known for over 100 years that the presence of anaerobic respiratory microorganisms can accelerate iron corrosion. Multiple studies have suggested that there are sulfate reducers, methanogens, and acetogens that can directly accept electrons from Fe(0) to support sulfate or carbon dioxide reduction. However, all of...
Observation | Applied and Environmental ScienceTactic Response of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 toward Insoluble Electron AcceptorsPrevious hypotheses of tactic behavior of exoelectrogenic bacteria are based on techniques that do not accurately control the electrochemical potential, such as chemical-in-plug assays or microscopy tracking experiments in two-electrode cells. Here, we have revisited previous experiments and, for the first time, performed microscopy cell-tracking experiments in three-electrode electrochemical cells, with defined electrode potentials....