The Critical Role of Iron in Long Distance Electrical Transfer by Cable Bacteria
Abstract
Cable bacteria are known for transferring electrical current over millimeter to centimeter distances in the uppermost layers of aquatic sediment. Since discovery, this long-distance electron transfer enabled by cable bacteria, and the highly conductive biologicalnetwork they create, have gained substantial attention. However, much is still unknown about the basic mechanism(s) that cable bacteria use to perform extracellular electron transfer. Cable bacteria reside in sediment where active sulfate reduction creates a sizable pool of iron sulfide and the activities of cable bacteria greatly influence the localized iron and sulfur cycles. Additionally, cable bacteria remain unculturable outside of sediment. This challenge not only complicates efforts to study them by standard microbiological approaches but may also be linked to the importance of iron in the metabolism of cable bacteria. This proposed project will continue an effort started under a previous ONR Award (N00014-17-1-2599) to enrich cable bacteria in sterilizable setups includingautoclaved sediment, artificial media, and bioelectrochemical reactors. Electrical conductivity and metagenomes of cable bacteria filaments will be measured along with high resolution mass spectrometry-resolved metabolomes from cable bacteria-dominated cultures. We aim to resolve the key role of iron ligands and iron redox reactions in the long-distance electron transfer of cable bacteria.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112251
Entities
People
- Clare Reimers
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Oregon State University
- United States Navy