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Concept
Geobacter
Summary
Geobacter is a genus of bacteria. Geobacter species are anaerobic respiration bacterial species which have capabilities that make them useful in bioremediation. Geobacter was found to be the first organism with the ability to oxidize organic compounds and metals, including iron, radioactive metals, and petroleum compounds into environmentally benign carbon dioxide while using iron oxide or other available metals as electron acceptors. Geobacter species are also found to be able to respire upon a graphite electrode. They have been found in anaerobic conditions in soils and aquatic sediment.
Geobacter metallireducens was first isolated by Derek Lovley in 1987 in sand sediment from the Potomac River in Washington D.C. The first strain was deemed strain GS-15.
Geobacter spp. and methanotrophs, such as Candidatus Methylomirabilis and Methylobacter, were highly abundant in samples from the 'Bean' and the 'Thorn North' ring, in Ontario, Canada.
For quite some time, it was thought that Geobacter species lacked c-cytochromes that can be utilized to reduce metal ions, hence it was assumed that they required direct physical contact in order to use metal ions as terminal electron acceptors (TEAs). The discovery of the highly conductive pili in Geobacter species, and the proposal of using them as biological nano-wires further strengthened this view. Nevertheless, recent discoveries have revealed that many Geobacter species, such as Geobacter uraniireducens, not only do not possess highly conductive pili, but also do not need direct physical contact in order to utilize the metal ions as TEAs, suggesting that there is a great variety of extracellular electron transport mechanisms among the Geobacter species. For example, one other way of transporting electrons is via a quinone-mediated electron shuttle, which is observed in Geobacter sulfurreducens.
Another observed metabolic phenomenon is the cooperation between Geobacter species, in which several species cooperate in metabolizing a mixture of chemicals that neither could process alone.
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