ReviewThe ISME journal2017
Happy together: microbial communities that hook up to swap electrons.
Review in The ISME journal, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 380 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assembly Dynamics and Functional Divergence of Anaerobic Communities Driven by Iron Oxides.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Application and Mechanisms of Biochar in Anaerobic Digestion: Towards Process Resilience and Waste Valorization.Toxics · 2026Review
- Lithosyntrophy: Obligate syntrophy in a phosphite-oxidizing, methanogenic culture.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Cytochrome nanowires under electron microscopy.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2026Review
- Electron conductive compounds alter fermentative pathways and cooperation in Clostridium carboxidivorans and Clostridium acetobutylicum in co-culture.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Enhancement of the start-up and performance of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor using electrochemically-enriched biofilm.Enzyme and microbial technology · 2025Article
- Novel energy utilization mechanisms of microorganisms in the hydrosphere.Fundamental research · 2025Review
- Duration of OEnvironmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Article
- Interspecies electron transfer as one of key drivers of methanogenic consortia succession within quorum sensing regulation.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Magnetic, conductive nanoparticles as building blocks for steerable micropillar-structured anodic biofilms.Biofilm · 2024Article
- Integration of Digestate-Derived Biochar into the Anaerobic Digestion Process through Circular Economic and Environmental Approaches-A Review.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Electrical stress and acid orange 7 synergistically clear the blockage of electron flow in the methanogenesis of low-strength wastewater.Environmental science and ecotechnology · 2024Article
- Electron Transfer in the Biogeochemical Sulfur Cycle.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- A comprehensive review of microbial fuel cells considering materials, methods, structures, and microorganisms.Heliyon · 2024Review
- Performance and mechanism of a bioelectrochemical system for reduction of heavy metal cadmium ions.RSC advances · 2024Article
- Conductive proteins-based extracellular electron transfer of electroactive microorganisms.Quantitative biology (Beijing, China) · 2023Review
- Genomic Insights into Syntrophic Lifestyle of 'Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Detrimental impact of theMicrobiology spectrum · 2023Article
- Direct interspecies electron transfer enables anaerobic oxidation of sulfide to elemental sulfur coupled with COiScience · 2023Article
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The discovery of direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) and cable bacteria has demonstrated that microbial cells can exchange electrons over long distances (μm-cm) through electrical connections. For example, in the presence of cable bacteria electrons are rapidly transported over centimeter distances, coupling the oxidation of reduced sulfur compounds in anoxic sediments to oxygen reduction in overlying surficial sediments. Bacteria and archaea wired for DIET are found in anaerobic methane-producing and methane-consuming communities. Electrical connections between gut microbes and host cells have also been proposed. Iterative environmental and defined culture studies on methanogenic communities revealed the importance of electrically conductive pili and c-type cytochromes in natural electrical grids, and demonstrated that conductive carbon materials and magnetite can substitute for these biological connectors to facilitate DIET. This understanding has led to strategies to enhance and stabilize anaerobic digestion. Key unknowns warranting further investigation include elucidation of the archaeal electrical connections facilitating DIET-based methane production and consumption; and the mechanisms for long-range electron transfer through cable bacteria. A better understanding of mechanisms for cell-to-cell electron transfer could facilitate the hunt for additional electrically connected microbial communities with omics approaches and could advance spin-off applications such as the development of sustainable bioelectronics materials and bioelectrochemical technologies.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.