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Title: Shewanella oneidensis in a lactate-fed pure-culture and a glucose-fed co-culture with Lactococcus lactis with an electrode as electron acceptor

Author
item ROSENBAUM, MIRIAM - Cornell University
item BAR, HAIM - Cornell University
item BEG, QASIM - Boston University
item SEGRE, DANIEL - Boston University
item BOOTH, JAMES - Cornell University
item Cotta, Michael
item ANGENENT, LARGUS - Cornell University

Submitted to: Bioresource Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/6/2010
Publication Date: 10/12/2010
Citation: Rosenbaum, M., Bar, H.Y., Beg, Q., Segre, D., Booth, J., Cotta, M.A., Angenent, L.T. 2011. Shewanella oneidensis in a lactate-fed pure-culture and a glucose-fed co-culture with Lactococcus lactis with an electrode as electron acceptor. Bioresource Technology. 102(3):2623-2628.

Interpretive Summary: Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) employing mixed microbial communities as biocatalysts are gaining importance as potential renewable energy, bioremediation, or biosensing devices. While we are beginning to understand how individual microorganism species interact with an electrode as electron donor, not much is known about the interactions between different microbial species in a community. In the current research, we compared the bioelectrochemical performance of one well known electro-active microorganism, Shewanella oneidensis, in pure culture and co-culture with a fermentative bacterium and describe the metabolic events and genes involved in electricity generation. These co-culture experiments represent a first step in understanding microbial interactions in BES communities with the goal to design complex microbial communities, which specifically convert target substrates into electricity.

Technical Abstract: Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) employing mixed microbial communities as biocatalysts are gaining importance as potential renewable energy, bioremediation, or biosensing devices. While we are beginning to understand how individual microbial species interact with an electrode as electron donor, little is known about the interactions between different microbial species in a community: sugar fermenting bacteria can interact with current producing microbes in a fashion that is neutral, positively enhancing, or even negatively affecting. Here, we compare the bioelectrochemical performance of Shewanella oneidensis in a pure-culture and in a co-culture with the homolactic acid fermenter Lactococcus lactis. While S. oneidensis alone can only use lactate as electron donor for current production, the co-culture is able to convert glucose into current with a similar coulombic efficiency of ~17%. With (electro)-chemical analysis and transcription profiling, we found that the BES performance and S. oneidensis physiology were not significantly different whether grown as a pure- or co-culture. Thus, the microbes worked together in a purely substrate based (neutral) relationship. These co-culture experiments represent an important step in understanding microbial interactions in BES communities with the goal to design complex microbial communities, which specifically convert target substrates into electricity.