Investigation of the molecular mechanism of iron corroding acetogens that grow on metallic iron as the sole energy source

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14895
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied microbiology
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kato Souichiro 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 生物プロセス研究部門, 主任研究員 (30597787)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 微生物 / 鉄腐食 / 酢酸生成菌 / ゲノム解析 / シトクロム / 細胞外電子伝達

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we aimed to elucidate the molecular mechanism of energy metabolism of iron corroding acetogens that produces acetate from carbon dioxide using metallic iron as the sole energy source. We investigated iron corrosion activities of an iron corroding acetogen (Sporomusa sp. GT1) and related acetogens, and found that only some Sporomusa strains had iron corroding activities and the other acetogens not. Then we conducted comparative genomic analysis on the acetogenic strains. The Sporomusa strains that showed iron corroding activities did not encode the genes for multiheme c-type cytochromes, indicating that they have a different extracellular electron transfer mechanism than known Gram-negative bacteria.

Free Research Field

環境微生物学