MicrobeWorld

Humans have been getting microbes to do our bidding for millennia, but a study appearing in the latest issue of mBio reveals an electrifying new way to get what we want from bacteria: researchers were able to manipulate bacterial metabolism by pulling excess electrons out of the mix and into an electrode. Flynn et al. developed their system to coax an ethanol-making transformation out of Shewanella oneidensis. By sticking an electrode into the reaction to draw off two electrons for every glycerol molecule, they were able to make the reaction favorable, thus making two valuable products in one step: ethanol and electricity.
Click on the Goo.gl link above to read more on our blog, mBiosphere…