The double life of a bacteria—living off both iron and pure electricity

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science and the University of Tokyo have demonstrated that the bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans can take electrons needed for growth directly from an electrode power source when iron—its already known source of energy—is absent. The study, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, shows that A. ferrooxidans can use direct uptake of electrons from an electrode to fuel the same metabolic pathway that is activated by the oxidation of diffusible iron ions.

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