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Soil bacteria use proteins to power nanowires, creating an underground electrical grid that supports life and impacts methane emissions. In order to “breathe” in an oxygen-free environment, bacteria
Soil bacteria use proteins to power nanowires, creating an underground electrical grid that supports life and impacts methane emissions.
In order to “breathe” in an oxygen-free environment, bacteria in the soil beneath our feet depend on a family of proteins that transfer the excess electrons produced when food is “burned” to electrical hairs called nanowires that protrude from their surfaces. Researchers from Yale University and NOVA University of Lisbon NOVA School of Science and Technology (NOVA-FCT).
This family of proteins essentially acts as plugs that feed these nanowires, creating a natural electrical network that allows many types of microbes to survive and sustain life deep within the Earth, said associate professor Nikhil Malvankar, one of the senior authors of the new study. Carlos Salgueiro, from the Departments of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and the Institute of Microbial Sciences at Yale University and a professor at NOVA-FCT.
Malvankar and Salgeiro’s laboratories carefully studied the components of this microbial electrical network. However, it was unclear how bacteria could transfer excess electrons produced by metabolic activity to nanowires that protrude from their surfaces and attach to minerals or their neighbors. They found that many species of soil bacteria depend on a single, widespread family of cytochromes in their bodies to charge the nanowires.
Understanding the details of this nanowire charging is important for the potential development of new energy sources and new biomaterials and its environmental impact. Malvankar and Salgueiro note that microbes absorb 80% of ocean methane released from the ocean floor, which is a major contributor to global warming. However, 50% of methane emissions into the atmosphere come from microbes on the Earth’s surface. They said understanding different metabolic processes could help reduce methane emissions.
The study was reported in the journal Nature Communication. This work was supervised by co-authors Pilar Portela and Catherine Shipps, as well as Kong Shen and Vishok Srikanth.
Source: Port Altele
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