Microbial electricity: a surprise from the seafloor
Informations
- Funding country
Netherlands- Acronym
- -
- URL
- -
- Start date
- 11/1/2017
- End date
- -
- Budget
- 1,500,000 EUR
Fundings
| Name | Role | Start | End | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talent Programme | Grant | - | - | - |
Abstract
In 2010 a perplexing discovery was made: marine microbes are generating electrical currents within the seafloor that extend over centimeter scale distances. Long filamentous microbes, called “cable bacteria”, transport electrons from cell to cell along a chain of more than 10.000 cells. Dense populations of these cable bacteria produce high areal current densities, and make the seafloor operate like an electrical battery. This newly discovered process of long-distance microbial electricity is fundamentally different from neural conduction or other known conduction mechanisms in biology, and equips cable bacteria with a competitive advantage for survival in the seafloor. Recent results obtained within my research group provide a new surprising twist to the story of long-distance microbial electricity. These data convincingly demonstrate that cable bacteria are not acting alone, as close metabolic interactions occur, inducing an electron exchange between cable bacteria and other members of the microbial community. Somehow, other bacteria are profiting from the electrical grid supplied by the cable bacteria. In this VICI project, I propose to examine this new idea of an “electrical biosphere”, answering the many questions that it provokes: which metabolic pathways are catalyzed, which microbial players are involved, how do they interact, and what is the effective mechanism of electron transfer. The capability of bacteria to transport electrons across centimeter distances implies that evolution must have somehow developed an organic structure that is highly conductive. If these conductive structures could be harnessed in an engineered way, this could pave the way for entirely new materials and applications in bio-electronics. The results of this VICI project could hence open a broad avenue for applied research and technological innovation.