A newly discovered bacteria walking in the mud of the Oregon coast could advance a new era of bioelectric devices.
He was appointed California. Electrothrix yaqonensisIn honor of First Nations Yaqo’n Local people in the area found to him, and he leads electricity like a thread. It is not unique, but California. Electrothrix yaqonensis has some fascinating features that distinguish it from other conductive microbes.
Collectively, these organizations are known as Cabinized bacteriaAnd only a handful are known, divided between two candidate (California.) genres that have not yet been cultivated and officially described – California. Electrothrix And California. Electrical. They live in sedimentary environments and organize themselves, from start to finish, in long wires that transport electrons.
The purpose of this is a Metabolic Labor Division Between individual cells in the variable oxygenated environment in which they live. It’s a real collectiveAs are often the bacterial colonies, but in a manner, uniquely to their troubled and soggy house.
Even among a particular set of species, however, California. Electrothrix yaqonensis stands out.
“This new species seems to be a bridge, a first branch in the California. Electrothrix Clade, who suggests that he could provide new information on how these bacteria have evolved and how they could work in different environments, ” said the microbiologist Cheng Li Oregon State University and James Madison University.
“It stands out from all the other species of wired bacteria described in terms of metabolic potential, and it has distinct structural characteristics, including pronounced surface ridges, up to three times wider than those observed in other species, which shelter highly conductive fibers made of unique nickel molecules.”
Directed by the microbiologist Anwar Hiralal from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, researchers have isolated and studied the bacteria by using genomic, morphological, spectroscopic and electric characterization techniques.
Their results have revealed that it has morphological differences compared to other wired bacteria, as well as genetic similarities with both genres. Among the most important conclusions, there were pronounced ridges, as well as the extracellular sheaths that microbes give off when they form their long connected strands.
A filament of California. Electrothrix yaqonensis. (Oregon State University)
These strands are the way in which bacteria make reduction-oxidation reactions over long distances (up to several centimeters). The cells buried more deeply in the sediments, where they cannot access oxygen, create energy by metabolizing sulfide. This produces electrons, which they transport to the layer rich in oxygenOr The upper cells use oxygen or nitrate to receive electrons.
This behavior, according to researchers, is something that humans could exploit for purposes such as food security and environmental cleaning.
“These bacteria can transfer electrons to clean the pollutants, so that they can be used to eliminate harmful substances from sediments”, ” Li says. “In addition, their design of a highly conductive nickel protein can possibly inspire new bioelectronics.”
Other works can help refine the position of this new species in the family tree of cable bacteria and what we can draw from it.
“Its non -conformist metabolic features highlight the complex evolving dynamics in the clade of wired bacteria”, ” Researchers write“And suggest a broader functional and ecological diversity in this clade than what has been recognized before.”
Research was published in Applied and environmental microbiology.