Event Date
MIC (Microbiology Course) 291: Selected Topics in Microbiology
Work-in-Progress Seminars
Speaker: Daniel R. Bond, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota
Dr. Bond presents: “Bacteria Keep Inventing New Ways to Make their World Conductive”
About the seminar: Bacteria can build conductive pathways that transmit electrons remarkable distances. Some organisms deliver cytoplasmic electrons to proteins on their outer surface, where they alter nearby rusts and metal oxides. Others knit millions of cells together in a conductive matrix, supplying electrons to methanogens and other syntrophic partners. In the laboratory, we can use electrodes to mimic these natural substrates and companions, and harness microbial electron flow. Unlike most respiratory strategies, the molecular basis for conductivity varies across the tree of life. There is no single well-conserved enzyme, and solutions to this problem likely emerged multiple times. The Bond Lab’s recent work focuses on solving structures for filamentous ‘nanowires’ that form electrical networks beyond cells, and developing tools to discover new nanowires in mixed cultures without the need for isolation.
Host: Scott Dawson