This Helpful Bacteria Can Conduct Electricity!

Researchers have discovered a new species of conducting microbe in the mudflats of the Oregon coast, the United States. Its metabolic potential could usher in a new era of bioelectric devices.

“This new species seems to be a bridge, an early branch within the Ca. Electrothrix clade, which suggests it could provide new insights into how these bacteria evolved and how they might function in different environments,” explains microbiologist Cheng Li, one of the study’s co-author.

Cable bacteria live in sedimentary environments and arrange themselves end-to-end in long threads, transporting electrons. The bacteria can help remove toxic materials from sediments and eliminate pollutants. Using genomic, morphological, spectroscopic, and electrical characterisation techniques, researchers isolated and studied Ca. Electrothrix yaqonensis, named after the First Nations Yago’n people, local to the era in which it was found. They found that the extracellular sheaths the microbes exude when forming their long, connected strands allow them to perform reduction-oxidation reactions over long distances. Bacteria can’t access oxygen deep in the sediment, thus creating energy by metabolising sulfide. This step enables the production of electrons, then transported to the oxygen-rich layer. This behaviour could be leveraged to benefit food safety and environmental cleanup.