Researchers at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, say they have discovered that a common diarrhea-causing bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes , produces electricity using an entirely different method from known electrogenic bacteria, and that hundreds of other bacterial species use this same process. Their study (“ A flavin-based extracellular electron transfer mechanism in diverse Gram-positive bacteria ”), published online in Nature , will be good news for those currently trying to create living batteries from microbes. Such green bioenergetic technologies could, for example, generate electricity from bacteria in waste treatment plants. “Extracellular electron transfer (EET) describes microbial bioelectrochemical processes in which electrons are transferred from the cytosol to the exterior of the cell. Mineral-respiring bacteria use elaborate haem-based electron transfer mechanisms but the existence and mechanistic basis of other EETs remain largely unknown. Here we show that the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes uses a distinctive flavin-based EET mechanism to deliver electrons ...
Original Article: Common Diarrhea-Causing Bacterium Found to Produce Electricity