EAPS DLS – Annette Rowe (Univ. of Cincinnati)

Eating Rocks! The mechanics of how microbes get electrons for mineral, electrodes and other cells.

While the mechanisms of how microbes transfer electrons to minerals have been well studied in model iron reducing microbes like Geobacter and Shewanella, the reverse process involving the oxidation of mineral remains poorly understood. This limits our ability to identify the genetic and genomic capacity of microbes in the environment capable of mineral oxidation, and/or identify environments where these geochemically cryptic processes are occurring. This presentation will highlight our current understanding of electron uptake in both model systems (Shewanella), and marine sediment microbes isolated for their ability to interact with solid phase minerals and electrodes. It will also highlight the importance of the process of extracellular electron transfer, that results in redox interaction between microbes and minerals, for electron transfer reactions with other microbes in mixed species consortia or biofilms. In addition to our mechanistic studies, this presentation will touch on investigating the potential for microbe-mineral interactions in serpentinizing systems, and this work will introduce work to isolate novel sulfur oxidizing microbes from a pH 12 spring.

About this Series:
The Department Lecture Series at EAPS at MIT is a series of weekly talks given by leading thinkers in the areas of geology, geophysics, geobiology, geochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, climatology, and planetary science. For more information and Zoom password please contact Madelyn Musick: mmusick@mit.edu