Ultrastructure of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 nanowires revealed by electron cryotomography

Abstract

Recent findings from in vivo fluorescence and immunolabeling measurements hinted at the possible role of outer membrane (OM) extensions as Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 nanowires. However, a detailed understanding of the architecture and electron transport mechanism along OM extensions was lacking. In this work, we report a unique setup for correlative light and electron microscopy of Shewanella OM extensions and demonstrate that they are chains of interconnected outer membrane vesicles with densities, consistent with periplasmic and OM cytochromes, distributed along their length. We propose, based on the packing density of cytochromes measured from electron cryotomograms, that the electron transport mechanism involves a combination of direct electron hopping and diffusion of electron carriers.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 19, 2018
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1718810115

Entities

People

  • Grant J. Jensen
  • Mohamed Y El-Naggar
  • Poorna Subramanian
  • Sahand Pirbadian

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Office of Basic Energy Sciences
  • University of Southern California

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Microbial Pathology
  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology
  • Pulsed Power and Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics