Cable bacteria

Cable bacteria in between two layers of sediment split apart inside a glass cylinder.
Diagram demonstrating cable bacteria metabolism in surface sediment. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is oxidized in the sulfidic sediment layer, and the resulting electrons (e−) are conducted up through the cable bacteria filament to the oxic layer and used to reduce molecular oxygen (O2).

Cable bacteria are filamentous bacteria that conduct electricity across distances over 1 cm in sediment and groundwater aquifers.[1][2] Cable bacteria allow for long-distance electron transport, which connects electron donors to electron acceptors, connecting previously separated oxidation and reduction reactions.[3] Cable bacteria couple the reduction of oxygen[2] or nitrate[4] at the sediment's surface to the oxidation of sulfide[2] in the deeper, anoxic, sediment layers.

  1. ^ Nielsen LP, Risgaard-Petersen N, Fossing H, Christensen PB, Sayama M (February 2010). "Electric currents couple spatially separated biogeochemical processes in marine sediment". Nature. 463 (7284): 1071–4. Bibcode:2010Natur.463.1071N. doi:10.1038/nature08790. PMID 20182510. S2CID 205219761.
  2. ^ a b c Pfeffer C, Larsen S, Song J, Dong M, Besenbacher F, Meyer RL, et al. (November 2012). "Filamentous bacteria transport electrons over centimetre distances". Nature. 491 (7423): 218–21. Bibcode:2012Natur.491..218P. doi:10.1038/nature11586. PMID 23103872. S2CID 205231198.
  3. ^ Nielsen LP, Risgaard-Petersen N (2015). "Rethinking sediment biogeochemistry after the discovery of electric currents". Annual Review of Marine Science. 7: 425–42. Bibcode:2015ARMS....7..425N. doi:10.1146/annurev-marine-010814-015708. PMID 25251266.
  4. ^ Marzocchi U, Trojan D, Larsen S, Meyer RL, Revsbech NP, Schramm A, et al. (August 2014). "Electric coupling between distant nitrate reduction and sulfide oxidation in marine sediment". The ISME Journal. 8 (8): 1682–90. doi:10.1038/ismej.2014.19. PMC 4817607. PMID 24577351.