Issue 4, 2011

Exploration of the ‘cytochromome’ of Desulfuromonas acetoxidans, a marine bacterium capable of powering microbial fuel cells

Abstract

Recent progress in bacterial genomic analysis has revealed a vast number of genes that encode c-type cytochromes that contain multiple heme cofactors. This high number of multiheme cytochromes in several bacteria has been correlated with their great respiratory flexibility, and in what concerns biotechnological applications, has been correlated with electricity production in Microbial Fuel Cells. Desulfuromonas acetoxidans, a member of the Geobactereaceae family, is one of these organisms for which the genome was recently made available, coding for 47 putative multiheme cytochromes. The growth of D. acetoxidans in different media allowed the identification of the cytochromes dominant in each condition. The triheme cytochromec7 is always present suggesting a key role in the bioenergetic metabolism of this organism, and a dodecaheme cytochrome of low homology with other proteins in the databases was also isolated. Different cytochromes are found for different growth conditions showing that their roles can be assigned to specific bioenergetic electron transfer routes.

Graphical abstract: Exploration of the ‘cytochromome’ of Desulfuromonas acetoxidans, a marine bacterium capable of powering microbial fuel cells

  • This article is part of the themed collection: Cytochromes

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Nov 2010
Accepted
24 Jan 2011
First published
07 Feb 2011

Metallomics, 2011,3, 349-353

Spotlight

Advertisements