Bacterial proteins that transform iron and other minerals for energy and growth
Monday, December 15, 2014 - 07:00
in Biology & Nature
Cleaning up polluted soil and growing crops for biofuels benefit from a deeper understanding of how microbes alter subsurface minerals. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of East Anglia, and University College London assess the state of understanding of a key enzymatic pathway employed by bacteria in these transformations: chains of proteins called multi-heme cytochromes. The proteins perform a variety of tasks, primarily acting as electron conduits, and take multiple forms. The review, which focuses on the microbe Shewanella oneidensis, appears in Journal of the Royal Society Interfaces. The article covers more than 150 studies of the protein, spanning more than three decades.