Direction of electrons to nitrate and oxygen in cable bacteria

Cable bacteria can use both nitrate and oxygen, so what happens in sediment where nitrate penetrates deeper than oxygen? Are the electrons going to the energetically most rewarding acceptor, oxygen, or to nitrate that comes first for the electrons coming up through the bacterial wires from the deeper, sulfide oxidizing cells? Such questions challenge the conventional understanding of electron pathways in cells and environment and multiple hypotheses integrating enzymatic capacities, energetics, limiting factors, behavior, and electron conductor properties in cable bacteria could be imagined.

Supervisor: Lars Peter Nielsen

Methods: Tests can be conducted in sediment with rapid manipulations of oxygen and nitrate and simultaneous measures with electrical potential microsensors of rates and depths of electron harvest. Other approaches might be based on microscope observations of interface distortions by single cable bacteria.

Contact: 

Lars Peter Nielsen ([email protected])

The project proposal has been submitted 07.05.2026