Researchers at Yale University and NOVA-FCT have discovered how soil bacteria “breathe” in oxygen-less environments by using a protein family to transmit excess electrons to nanowires, creating a natural electrical grid underground. This grid helps sustain microbial life and affects environmental processes like methane absorption, pivotal in controlling global warming. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Soil bacteria use proteins to power nanowires, forming an underground electrical grid that supports life and impacts methane emissions. To “breathe” in an environment without oxygen, bacteria in the ground beneath our feet depend upon a single family of proteins to transfer excess electrons, produced during the “burning” of nutrients, to electric hairs called nanowires projecting from their surface, found by researchers atThis family of proteins in essence acts as plugs that power these nanowires to create a natural electrical grid deep inside the Earth, which enables many types of microbes to survive and support life, said...
This work was led by co-first authors Pilar Portela and Catharine Shipps, along with Cong Shen and Vishok Srikanth. Reference: “Widespread extracellular electron transfer pathways for charging microbial cytochrome OmcS nanowires via periplasmic cytochromes PpcABCDE” by Pilar C. Portela, Catharine C. Shipps, Cong Shen, Vishok Srikanth, Carlos A. Salgueiro and Nikhil S. Malvankar, 20 March 2024,SciTechDaily: Home of the best science and technology news since 1998. Keep up with the latest scitech news via email or social media.
Malaysia Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: cleantechnica - 🏆 565. / 51 Read more »