ReviewCurrent opinion in chemical biology2020
The blind men and the filament: Understanding structures and functions of microbial nanowires.
Review in Current opinion in chemical biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 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
43 citing papers in PubMed, 93 citations in OpenAlex.
- Wired for life: Intracellular electron nanowires help methane-producing microbes grow.Science advances · 2026Review
- Environmental considerations and bioremediation applications of the metal-, nitrate-, and organohalide-respiring bacteriumApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- Sources of non-Arrhenius electron transport in bacterial nanowires.Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP · 2026Article
- Cross-scale design of abiotic-biotic interfaces for semi-artificial photosynthesis.Chemical science · 2026Review
- Cytochrome nanowires under electron microscopy.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2026Review
- Conducting Atomic Force Microscopy of Protein Wires.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Quorum sensing as a promising tool for enhancing the performance of bioelectrochemical systems: a review.3 Biotech · 2025Review
- Crucial roles of intracellular cyclic di-GMP in impacting the genes important for extracellular electron transfer byApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Bacterial Species in Engineered Living Materials: Strategies and Future Directions.Microbial biotechnology · 2025Review
- Scanning Tunneling Microscope Measurement of Proteasome Conductance.Biomolecules · 2025Article
- A widespread and ancient bacterial machinery assembles cytochrome OmcS nanowires essential for extracellular electron transfer.Cell chemical biology · 2025Article
- Independently evolved extracellular electron transfer pathways in ecologically diverse Desulfobacterota.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Electron transport across the cell envelope via multihemeFrontiers in chemistry · 2025Review
- Genetic Code Expansion inACS synthetic biology · 2024Article
- Engineering of bespoke photosensitiser-microbe interfaces for enhanced semi-artificial photosynthesis.Chemical science · 2024Review
- Widespread extracellular electron transfer pathways for charging microbial cytochrome OmcS nanowires via periplasmic cytochromes PpcABCDE.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of extracellular electron transfer in anaerobic methanotrophic archaea.Nature communications · 2024Article
- To be or not to be a cytochrome: electrical characterizations are inconsistent withFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Heavy Water Reduces the Electronic Conductance of Protein Wires via Deuteron Interactions with Aromatic Residues.Nano letters · 2023Article
- Electron Tunneling in Biology: When Does it Matter?ACS omega · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Extracellular electron transfer via filamentous protein appendages called 'microbial nanowires' has long been studied in Geobacter and other bacteria because of their crucial role in globally-important environmental processes and their applications for bioenergy, biofuels, and bioelectronics. Thousands of papers thought these nanowires as pili without direct evidence. Here, we summarize recent discoveries that could help resolve two decades of confounding observations. Using cryo-electron microscopy with multimodal functional imaging and a suite of electrical, biochemical, and physiological studies, we find that rather than pili, nanowires are composed of cytochromes OmcS and OmcZ that transport electrons via seamless stacking of hemes over micrometers. We discuss the physiological need for two different nanowires and their potential applications for sensing, synthesis, and energy production.
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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.