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      Electric currents couple spatially separated biogeochemical processes in marine sediment

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      Nature
      Springer Science and Business Media LLC

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          Abstract

          Some bacteria are capable of extracellular electron transfer, thereby enabling them to use electron acceptors and donors without direct cell contact. Beyond the micrometre scale, however, no firm evidence has previously existed that spatially segregated biogeochemical processes can be coupled by electric currents in nature. Here we provide evidence that electric currents running through defaunated sediment couple oxygen consumption at the sediment surface to oxidation of hydrogen sulphide and organic carbon deep within the sediment. Altering the oxygen concentration in the sea water overlying the sediment resulted in a rapid (<1-h) change in the hydrogen sulphide concentration within the sediment more than 12 mm below the oxic zone, a change explicable by transmission of electrons but not by diffusion of molecules. Mass balances indicated that more than 40% of total oxygen consumption in the sediment was driven by electrons conducted from the anoxic zone. A distinct pH peak in the oxic zone could be explained by electrochemical oxygen reduction, but not by any conventional sets of aerobic sediment processes. We suggest that the electric current was conducted by bacterial nanowires combined with pyrite, soluble electron shuttles and outer-membrane cytochromes. Electrical communication between distant chemical and biological processes in nature adds a new dimension to our understanding of biogeochemistry and microbial ecology.

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          Ferrozine---a new spectrophotometric reagent for iron

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            Extracellular electron transfer via microbial nanowires.

            Microbes that can transfer electrons to extracellular electron acceptors, such as Fe(iii) oxides, are important in organic matter degradation and nutrient cycling in soils and sediments. Previous investigations on electron transfer to Fe(iii) have focused on the role of outer-membrane c-type cytochromes. However, some Fe(iii) reducers lack c-cytochromes. Geobacter species, which are the predominant Fe(iii) reducers in many environments, must directly contact Fe(iii) oxides to reduce them, and produce monolateral pili that were proposed, on the basis of the role of pili in other organisms, to aid in establishing contact with the Fe(iii) oxides. Here we report that a pilus-deficient mutant of Geobacter sulfurreducens could not reduce Fe(iii) oxides but could attach to them. Conducting-probe atomic force microscopy revealed that the pili were highly conductive. These results indicate that the pili of G. sulfurreducens might serve as biological nanowires, transferring electrons from the cell surface to the surface of Fe(iii) oxides. Electron transfer through pili indicates possibilities for other unique cell-surface and cell-cell interactions, and for bioengineering of novel conductive materials.
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              Humic substances as electron acceptors for microbial respiration

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Nature
                Nature
                Springer Science and Business Media LLC
                0028-0836
                1476-4687
                February 2010
                February 2010
                : 463
                : 7284
                : 1071-1074
                Article
                10.1038/nature08790
                20182510
                229842b1-40ee-4212-8fb5-005f370a3e2f
                © 2010

                http://www.springer.com/tdm

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