Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 7, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12217
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [MCB-1021948]
- MTRAC grant
- State of Michigan 21st Century Jobs Funds through the Michigan Strategic Fund
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the US Department of Agriculture
- Michigan State's College of Natural Sciences
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Electricity generation by Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms grown on electrodes involves matrix-associated electron carriers, such as c-type cytochromes. Yet, the contribution of the biofilm's conductive pili remains uncertain, largely because pili-defective mutants also have cytochrome defects. Here we report that a pili-deficient mutant carrying an inactivating mutation in the pilus assembly motor PilB has no measurable defects in cytochrome expression, yet forms anode biofilms with reduced electroactivity and is unable to grow beyond a threshold distance (similar to 10 mu m) from the underlying electrode. The defects are similar to those of a Tyr3 mutant, which produces poorly conductive pili. The results support a model in which the conductive pili permeate the biofilms to wire the cells to the conductive biofilm matrix and the underlying electrode, operating coordinately with cytochromes until the biofilm reaches a threshold thickness that limits the efficiency of the cytochrome pathway but not the functioning of the conductive pili network.
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