The interplay between microorganisms and minerals is a complex and dynamic process that has sculpted the geosphere for nearly the entire history of the Earth. The work of Dr Terry Beveridge and colleagues provided some of the first insights into metal-microbe and mineral-microbe interactions and established a foundation for subsequent detailed investigations of interactions between microorganisms and minerals. Beveridge also envisioned that interdisciplinary approaches and teams would be required to explain how individual microbial cells interact with their immediate environment at nano- or microscopic scales and that through such approaches and using emerging technologies that the details of such interactions would be revealed at the molecular level. With this vision as incentive and inspiration, a multidisciplinary, collaborative team-based investigation was initiated to probe the process of electron transfer (ET) at the microbe-mineral interface. The grand challenge to this team was to address the hypothesis that multiheme c-type cytochromes of dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria localized to the cell exterior function as the terminal reductases in ET to Fe(III) and Mn(IV) oxides. This question has been the subject of extensive investigation for years, yet the answer has remained elusive. The team involves an integrated group of experimental and computational capabilities at US Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a national scientific user facility, as the collaborative focal point. The approach involves a combination of in vitro and in vivo biologic and biogeochemical experiments and computational analyses that, when integrated, provide a conceptual model of the ET process. The resulting conceptual model will be evaluated by integrating and comparing various experimental, i.e. in vitro and in vivo ET kinetics, and theoretical results. Collectively, the grand challenge will provide a detailed view of how organisms engage with mineral surfaces to exchange energy and electron density as required for life function.

中文翻译：

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微生物与矿物质界面的电子转移：生物地球化学的巨大挑战。

微生物和矿物质之间的相互作用是一个复杂而动态的过程，几乎在整个地球历史上都雕刻了地球圈。Terry Beveridge博士及其同事的工作为金属-微生物和矿物质-微生物的相互作用提供了一些初步见解，并为随后详细研究微生物与矿物质之间的相互作用奠定了基础。贝弗里奇还预见，将需要跨学科的方法和团队来解释单个微生物细胞如何在纳米或微观尺度上与其周围环境相互作用，并且通过这种方法和使用新兴技术，将在分子水平上揭示这种相互作用的细节。 。出于激励和鼓舞的愿景，多学科，发起了基于团队的协作研究，以探索微生物-矿物质界面上的电子转移（ET）过程。该团队面临的巨大挑战是要解决这样的假设：异化金属还原细菌的多血红素c型细胞色素位于细胞外部，在ET中转变为Fe（III）和Mn（IV）氧化物的末端还原酶。多年来，这个问题一直是广泛研究的主题，但是答案仍然难以捉摸。该团队由美国能源部环境分子科学实验室（一个国家科学用户设施）的实验和计算能力集成小组作为协作重点。该方法涉及体外和体内生物学，生物地球化学实验以及计算分析的结合，集成后，提供ET过程的概念模型。将通过整合和比较各种实验（即体外和体内ET动力学）和理论结果，评估所得的概念模型。总的来说，这项艰巨的挑战将提供有关生物如何与矿物质表面相互作用以交换生命功能所需的能量和电子密度的详细视图。