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Electric Cables of Living Cells. II. Bacterial Electron Conductors

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Abstract

The concept of “electric cables” involved in bioenergetic processes of a living cell was proposed half a century ago [Skulachev, V. P. (1971) Curr. Top. Bioenerg., Elsevier, pp. 127-190]. For many decades, only cell membrane structures have been considered as probable pathways for the electric current, namely, for the transfer of transmembrane electrochemical potential. However, the last ten to fifteen years have brought the discovery of bacterial “electric cables” of a new type. In 2005, “nanowires” conducting electric current over distances of tens of micrometers were discovered in metal- and sulphate-reducing bacteria [Reguera, G. et al. (2005) Nature, 435, pp. 1098-1101]. The next five years have witnessed the discovery of microbial electric currents over centimeter distances [Nielsen, L. P. et al. (2010) Nature, 463, 1071-1074]. This new group of bacteria allowing electric currents to flow over macroscopic distances was later called cable bacteria. Nanowires and conductive structures of cable bacteria serve to solve a special problem of membrane bioenergetics: they connect two redox half-reactions. In other words, unlike membrane “cables”, their function is electron transfer in the course of oxidative phosphorylation for the generation of membrane energy rather than of the end-product. The most surprising is the protein nature of these cables (at least of some of them) indicated by recent data, since no protein wires for the long-distance electron transport had been previously known in living systems.

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Abbreviations

ΔµH+ :

transmembrane proton electrochemical potential

ETC:

electron transport chain

MLC:

metal-like conductivity

SEC:

superexchange conductivity

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Dr. F. O. Kasparinsky, Dr. D. R. Lovley, Dr. J. V. Manca, Dr. J. Oemig, and Dr. M. Strauss for provided figures and to anonymous reviewers for valuable comments that allowed improving the work.

Funding

This study was supported by the Lomonosov Moscow State University (state program no. AAAA-A17-117120570011-4) and by the Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences (state program no. 01201253314).

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  1. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992, Moscow, Russia

    V. V. Ptushenko

  2. Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334, Moscow, Russia

    V. V. Ptushenko

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Correspondence to V. V. Ptushenko.

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Ptushenko, V.V. Electric Cables of Living Cells. II. Bacterial Electron Conductors. Biochemistry Moscow 85, 955–965 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006297920080118

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