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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...

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Autores principales: Shu, Chuanjun, Zhu, Qiang, Xiao, Ke, Hou, Yue, Ma, Haibo, Ma, Jing, Sun, Xiao
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
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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.
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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
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