The electrical ecosystem: cable bacteria and associated partner microorganisms

Long filamentous cable bacteria are capable of generating and mediating electricity over centimeter-scale distances, thus extending the known length scale of biological electron transport by three orders of magnitude. Up until present, research efforts have concentrated on the cable bacteria themselves, yet recent data provide indications of a tight coupling between cable bacteria and associated microorganisms. Possible interactions include a mutualistic exchange of metabolic substrates (classical syntrophy) or, more intriguingly, indirect and direct mechanisms such as direct interspecies electron transfer or electron shuttles. In this project we will investigate the presence and nature of such interactions. Our hypothesis is that long-distance electron transport in aquatic sediments is not exclusively mediated by cable bacteria, but could involve a consortium of cable bacteria and associated partner microbes. Field sampling in marine and brackish environments will be combined with targeted incubation experiments in the laboratory. Next generation sequencing methods and microscopy will be applied, and correlation analysis will unravel associations between cable bacteria and other microbes. Metatranscriptomes will shed light on potential electric or metabolic interactions. The project will improve our understanding of electrogenic sediments, with potentially important implications for sediment biogeochemistry and microbial ecology.

Keywords:MICROBIAL GENETICS, MICROBIAL ECOLOGY, MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES, MICROBIAL IDENTIFICATION

Disciplines:Biogeochemistry, Analysis of next-generation sequence data, Community ecology, Marine ecology, Microbiology not elsewhere classified