Cable Bacteria Take a New Breath Using Long-Distance Electricity

Recently, a new group of multicellular microorganisms was discovered, called 'cable bacteria', which are capable of generating and mediating electrical currents across centimetre-scale distances. By transporting electrons from cell to cell, cable bacteria can harvest electron donors and electron acceptors that are widely separated in space, thus providing them with a competitive advantage for survival in aquatic sediments. The underlying process of long-distance electron transport challenges some long-held ideas about the energy metabolism of multicellular organisms and entails a whole new type of electrical cooperation between cells. This review summarizes the current knowledge about these intriguing multicellular bacteria.