Electric bacteria explained

Electric bacteria are forms of bacteria that directly consume and excrete electrons at different energy potentials without requiring the metabolization of any sugars or other nutrients.^[1] This form of life appears to be especially adapted to low-oxygen environments. Most life forms require an oxygen environment in which to release the excess of electrons which are produced in metabolizing sugars. In a low oxygen environment, this pathway for releasing electrons is not available. Instead, electric bacteria "breathe" metals instead of oxygen, which effectively results in both an intake of and excretion of electrical charges.^[2]

Some electric bacteria:

• Shewanella, which makes protein nanowires^[3]
• Geobacter, which makes protein nanowires out of pilin^[4]
• Methanobacterium palustre^[5]
• Methanococcus maripaludis^[6]
• Mycobacterium smegmatis^{[7] [8]}
• Modified Escherichia coli (with Geobacter nanowire genes)^{[9] [10]}
• A broad collection of 30 bacteria varieties from marine sediments^{[11] [12]}

See also

• Electron transport chain

Notes and References

1. Web site: Meet the electric life forms that live on pure energy. Brahic. Catherine. New Scientist. en-US. 2019-02-18.
2. Web site: There are microbes that eat and poo nothing but electricity. Fox-Skelly. Jasmin. www.bbc.com. en. 2019-05-02.
3. Gorby . Yuri A. . Yanina . Svetlana . McLean . Jeffrey S. . Rosso . Kevin M. . Moyles . Dianne . Dohnalkova . Alice . Beveridge . Terry J. . Chang . In Seop . Kim . Byung Hong . Kim . Kyung Shik . Culley . David E. . Reed . Samantha B. . Romine . Margaret F. . Saffarini . Daad A. . Hill . Eric A. . 2006-07-25 . Electrically conductive bacterial nanowires produced by Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1 and other microorganisms . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 103 . 30 . 11358–11363 . 10.1073/pnas.0604517103 . 0027-8424 . 1544091 . 16849424. free .
4. Yalcin . Sibel Ebru . O’Brien . J. Patrick . Gu . Yangqi . Reiss . Krystle . Yi . Sophia M. . Jain . Ruchi . Srikanth . Vishok . Dahl . Peter J. . Huynh . Winston . Vu . Dennis . Acharya . Atanu . Chaudhuri . Subhajyoti . Varga . Tamas . Batista . Victor S. . Malvankar . Nikhil S. . October 2020 . Electric field stimulates production of highly conductive microbial OmcZ nanowires . Nature Chemical Biology . en . 16 . 10 . 1136–1142 . 10.1038/s41589-020-0623-9 . 32807967 . 7502555 . 1552-4469.
5. S . Cheng . D . Xing . Df . Call . Be . Logan . 2009-05-15 . Direct biological conversion of electrical current into methane by electromethanogenesi . Environmental Science & Technology . en . 43 . 10 . 3953–3958 . 10.1021/es803531g . 0013-936X . 19544913.
6. Deutzmann . Jörg S. . Sahin . Merve . Spormann . Alfred M. . 2015-04-21 . Extracellular enzymes facilitate electron uptake in biocorrosion and bioelectrosynthesis . mBio . 6 . 2 . e00496–15 . 10.1128/mBio.00496-15 . 2150-7511 . 4453541 . 25900658.
7. Grinter . Rhys . Kropp . Ashleigh . Venugopal . Hari . Senger . Moritz . Badley . Jack . Cabotaje . Princess R. . Jia . Ruyu . Duan . Zehui . Huang . Ping . Stripp . Sven T. . Barlow . Christopher K. . Belousoff . Matthew . Shafaat . Hannah S. . Cook . Gregory M. . Schittenhelm . Ralf B. . March 2023 . Structural basis for bacterial energy extraction from atmospheric hydrogen . Nature . en . 615 . 7952 . 541–547 . 10.1038/s41586-023-05781-7 . 36890228 . 10017518 . 1476-4687.
8. Web site: Kropp . Ashleigh . Greening . Chris . Grinter . Rhys . Electricity from thin air: an enzyme from bacteria can extract energy from hydrogen in the atmosphere . 2023-03-28 . The Conversation . en.
9. Ueki . Toshiyuki . Walker . David J. F. . Woodard . Trevor L. . Nevin . Kelly P. . Nonnenmann . Stephen S. . Lovley . Derek R. . 2020-03-20 . An Escherichia coli Chassis for Production of Electrically Conductive Protein Nanowires . ACS Synthetic Biology . en . 9 . 3 . 647–654 . 10.1021/acssynbio.9b00506 . 32125829 . 212406633 . 2161-5063. 10.1101/856302.
10. Web site: Electric bacteria create currents out of thin—and thick—air . 2023-03-28 . www.science.org . en.
11. Rowe . Annette R. . Chellamuthu . Prithiviraj . Lam . Bonita . Okamoto . Akihiro . Nealson . Kenneth H. . 2014 . Marine sediments microbes capable of electrode oxidation as a surrogate for lithotrophic insoluble substrate metabolism . Frontiers in Microbiology . 5 . 784 . 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00784 . 1664-302X . 4294203 . 25642220. free .
12. News: Singer . Emily . June 2016 . New Life Found That Lives Off Electricity . .