2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

New field of managing microbes: Elucidation of electrically metabolic switching mechanisms

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	21H03633
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 64020:Environmental load reduction and remediation-related
Research Institution	Shizuoka University
Principal Investigator	Futamata Hiroyuki 静岡大学, グリーン科学技術研究所, 教授 (50335105)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	田代陽介静岡大学, 工学部, 講師 (30589528)
Project Period (FY)	2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
Keywords	代謝 / 細胞外電子伝達 / 硫酸還元細菌 / 微生物燃料電池
Outline of Final Research Achievements	For electrical control of microbial metabolism, we focused on sulfate-reducing bacteria, which are representative anaerobic microorganisms and involved in global material cycling and metal corrosion. Isolates showed extracellular electron transfer (EET) ability at an optimum potential of +0.4 V (vs. SHE). After decoding the full-length genome, heme staining of cells cultured under EET and sulfate-reducing conditions revealed that heme proteins were detected in the extracellular membrane fraction only under EET conditions. Comprehensive transcriptome analysis revealed high transcription of the PilA gene and cytochrome with unknown localization under EET conditions, suggesting a dramatic metabolic change in response to the extracellular environment. In conclusion, we have succeeded in identifying genes and proteins involved in electrical metabolic responses and understanding their expression dynamics in response to environmental changes.
Free Research Field	微生物生態学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	細胞外電子伝達機構(EET)は生物の新規なエネルギー生産機構として着目され、地球規模での生態系の理解に不可欠と認識されつつある。しかし、その詳細な機構は特定の微生物２種に限定されている。その様な状況下において、代表的嫌気微生物であり地球規模での物質循環や金属腐食にも関与する硫酸還元細菌のEETが遺伝子およびタンパク質レベルで理解を得たことは学術的に大いにインパクトがある。また、電気化学的にEET関連遺伝子およびタンパク質が動的に変化していることは、電気的代謝制御の可能性を示しており金属腐食の軽減化技術に昇華できれば社会的意義は極めて大きいと考えられる。