Cargando…
Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances
Microorganisms can transfer electrons directly to extracellular acceptors, during which organic compounds are oxidized to carbon dioxide. One of these microbes, Geobacter sulfurreducens, is well known for the “metallic-like” conductivity of its type IV pili. However, there is no consensus on what th...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Hindawi
2019
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6925702/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31886232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/6151587 |
_version_ | 1783481955347595264 |
---|---|
author | Shu, Chuanjun Zhu, Qiang Xiao, Ke Hou, Yue Ma, Haibo Ma, Jing Sun, Xiao |
author_facet | Shu, Chuanjun Zhu, Qiang Xiao, Ke Hou, Yue Ma, Haibo Ma, Jing Sun, Xiao |
author_sort | Shu, Chuanjun |
collection | PubMed |
description | Microorganisms can transfer electrons directly to extracellular acceptors, during which organic compounds are oxidized to carbon dioxide. One of these microbes, Geobacter sulfurreducens, is well known for the “metallic-like” conductivity of its type IV pili. However, there is no consensus on what the mechanism for electron transfer along these conductive pili is. Based on the aromatic distances and orientations of our predicted models, the mechanism of electron transfer in the Geobacter sulfurreducens (GS) pili was explored by quantum chemical calculations with Marcus theory of electron transfer reactions. Three aromatic residues from the N-terminal α-helix of the GS pilin subunit are packed together, resulting in a continuous pi-pi interaction chain. The theoretical conductance (4.69 μS/3.85 μS) of the predicted models is very similar to that in the experiments reported recently (3.40 μS). These findings offer a new concept that the GS pili belongs to a new class of proteins that can transport electrons through pi-pi interaction between aromatic residues and also provide a valuable tool for guiding further researches of these conductive pili, to investigate their roles in biogeochemical cycling, and potential applications in biomaterials, bioelectronics, and bioenergy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6925702 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Hindawi |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-69257022019-12-29 Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances Shu, Chuanjun Zhu, Qiang Xiao, Ke Hou, Yue Ma, Haibo Ma, Jing Sun, Xiao Biomed Res Int Research Article Microorganisms can transfer electrons directly to extracellular acceptors, during which organic compounds are oxidized to carbon dioxide. One of these microbes, Geobacter sulfurreducens, is well known for the “metallic-like” conductivity of its type IV pili. However, there is no consensus on what the mechanism for electron transfer along these conductive pili is. Based on the aromatic distances and orientations of our predicted models, the mechanism of electron transfer in the Geobacter sulfurreducens (GS) pili was explored by quantum chemical calculations with Marcus theory of electron transfer reactions. Three aromatic residues from the N-terminal α-helix of the GS pilin subunit are packed together, resulting in a continuous pi-pi interaction chain. The theoretical conductance (4.69 μS/3.85 μS) of the predicted models is very similar to that in the experiments reported recently (3.40 μS). These findings offer a new concept that the GS pili belongs to a new class of proteins that can transport electrons through pi-pi interaction between aromatic residues and also provide a valuable tool for guiding further researches of these conductive pili, to investigate their roles in biogeochemical cycling, and potential applications in biomaterials, bioelectronics, and bioenergy. Hindawi 2019-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6925702/ /pubmed/31886232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/6151587 Text en Copyright © 2019 Chuanjun Shu et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Shu, Chuanjun Zhu, Qiang Xiao, Ke Hou, Yue Ma, Haibo Ma, Jing Sun, Xiao Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances |
title | Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances |
title_full | Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances |
title_fullStr | Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances |
title_full_unstemmed | Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances |
title_short | Direct Extracellular Electron Transfer of the Geobacter sulfurreducens Pili Relevant to Interaromatic Distances |
title_sort | direct extracellular electron transfer of the geobacter sulfurreducens pili relevant to interaromatic distances |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6925702/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31886232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/6151587 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT shuchuanjun directextracellularelectrontransferofthegeobactersulfurreducenspilirelevanttointeraromaticdistances AT zhuqiang directextracellularelectrontransferofthegeobactersulfurreducenspilirelevanttointeraromaticdistances AT xiaoke directextracellularelectrontransferofthegeobactersulfurreducenspilirelevanttointeraromaticdistances AT houyue directextracellularelectrontransferofthegeobactersulfurreducenspilirelevanttointeraromaticdistances AT mahaibo directextracellularelectrontransferofthegeobactersulfurreducenspilirelevanttointeraromaticdistances AT majing directextracellularelectrontransferofthegeobactersulfurreducenspilirelevanttointeraromaticdistances AT sunxiao directextracellularelectrontransferofthegeobactersulfurreducenspilirelevanttointeraromaticdistances |