Electricity generation from cysteine in a microbial fuel cell.

In a microbial fuel cell (MFC), power can be generated from the oxidation of organic matter by bacteria at the anode, with reduction of oxygen at the cathode. Proton exchange membranes used in MFCs are permeable to oxygen, resulting in the diffusion of oxygen into the anode chamber. This could either lower power generation by obligate anaerobes or result in the loss in electron donor from aerobic respiration by facultative or other aerobic bacteria. In order to maintain anaerobic conditions in conventional anaerobic laboratory cultures, chemical oxygen scavengers such as cysteine are commonly used. It is shown here that cysteine can serve as a substrate for electricity generation by bacteria in a MFC. A two-chamber MFC containing a proton exchange membrane was inoculated with an anaerobic marine sediment. Over a period of a few weeks, electricity generation gradually increased to a maximum power density of 19 mW/m(2) (700 or 1000 Omega resistor; 385 mg/L of cysteine). Power output increased to 39 mW/m(2) when cysteine concentrations were increased up to 770 mg/L (493 Omega resistor). The use of a more active cathode with Pt- or Pt-Ru, increased the maximum power from 19 to 33 mW/m(2) demonstrating that cathode efficiency limited power generation. Power was always immediately generated upon addition of fresh medium, but initial power levels consistently increased by ca. 30% during the first 24 h. Electron recovery as electricity was 14% based on complete cysteine oxidation, with an additional 14% (28% total) potentially lost to oxygen diffusion through the proton exchange membrane. 16S rRNA-based analysis of the biofilm on the anode of the MFC indicated that the predominant organisms were Shewanella spp. closely related to Shewanella affinis (37% of 16S rRNA gene sequences recovered in clone libraries).

[1]  B. Min,et al.  Electricity generation using membrane and salt bridge microbial fuel cells. , 2005, Water research.

[2]  M. Downes,et al.  Partitioning Effects during Terminal Carbon and Electron Flow in Sediments of a Low-Salinity Meltwater Pond near Bratina Island, McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica , 1999, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[3]  D. Park,et al.  Improved fuel cell and electrode designs for producing electricity from microbial degradation. , 2003, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[4]  Byung Hong Kim,et al.  A mediator-less microbial fuel cell using a metal reducing bacterium, Shewanella putrefaciens , 2002 .

[5]  M. Tesar,et al.  Phylogeny and polyphasic taxonomy of Caulobacter species. Proposal of Maricaulis gen. nov. with Maricaulis maris (Poindexter) comb. nov. as the type species, and emended description of the genera Brevundimonas and Caulobacter. , 1999, International journal of systematic bacteriology.

[6]  P. Gao,et al.  Two different proteases produced by a deep-sea psychrotrophic bacterial strain, Pseudoaltermonas sp. SM9913 , 2003 .

[7]  T. Jukes CHAPTER 24 – Evolution of Protein Molecules , 1969 .

[8]  D. Lowy,et al.  Harnessing microbially generated power on the seafloor , 2002, Nature Biotechnology.

[9]  G. Ellman,et al.  Tissue sulfhydryl groups. , 1959, Archives of biochemistry and biophysics.

[10]  P. McDermott,et al.  Characterization of Multiple-Antimicrobial-Resistant Salmonella Serovars Isolated from Retail Meats , 2004, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[11]  N. Saitou,et al.  The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. , 1987, Molecular biology and evolution.

[12]  D. Capone,et al.  Comparison of microbial dynamics in marine and freshwater sediments: Contrasts in anaerobic carbon catabolism1 , 1988 .

[13]  W. Verstraete,et al.  Biofuel Cells Select for Microbial Consortia That Self-Mediate Electron Transfer , 2004, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[14]  Masahira Hattori,et al.  Genome sequence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus: a pathogenic mechanism distinct from that of V cholerae , 2003, The Lancet.

[15]  D. R. Bond,et al.  Electricity Production by Geobacter sulfurreducens Attached to Electrodes , 2003, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[16]  Bernhard Schink,et al.  Cysteine-mediated reductive dissolution of poorly crystalline iron(III) oxides by Geobacter sulfurreducens. , 2002, Environmental science & technology.

[17]  R. E. Hungate Chapter IV A Roll Tube Method for Cultivation of Strict Anaerobes , 1969 .

[18]  Derek R. Lovley,et al.  Geobacter sulfurreducens Has Two Autoregulated lexA Genes Whose Products Do Not Bind the recA Promoter: Differing Responses of lexA and recA to DNA Damage , 2003, Journal of bacteriology.

[19]  D. Nicolau,et al.  Occurrence and diversity of mesophilic Shewanella strains isolated from the North-West Pacific Ocean. , 2003, Systematic and applied microbiology.

[20]  S. Holdcroft,et al.  Solid-state electrochemical oxygen reduction at Pt | Nafion® 117 and Pt | BAM3G 407 interfaces , 1998 .

[21]  D. R. Bond,et al.  Electrode-Reducing Microorganisms That Harvest Energy from Marine Sediments , 2002, Science.

[22]  J Swings,et al.  Genomic diversity amongst Vibrio isolates from different sources determined by fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism. , 2001, Systematic and applied microbiology.

[23]  H. Munro,et al.  Mammalian protein metabolism , 1964 .

[24]  A. K. Rowan,et al.  Composition and diversity of ammonia-oxidising bacterial communities in wastewater treatment reactors of different design treating identical wastewater. , 2003, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[25]  D. Nicolau,et al.  Shewanella waksmanii sp. nov., isolated from a sipuncula (Phascolosoma japonicum). , 2003, International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology.

[26]  H. Blöcker,et al.  Isolation and direct complete nucleotide determination of entire genes. Characterization of a gene coding for 16S ribosomal RNA. , 1989, Nucleic acids research.

[27]  In Seop Chang,et al.  Analysis of microbial diversity in oligotrophic microbial fuel cells using 16S rDNA sequences. , 2004, FEMS microbiology letters.

[28]  Byung Hong Kim,et al.  A novel electrochemically active and Fe(III)-reducing bacterium phylogenetically related to Aeromonas hydrophila, isolated from a microbial fuel cell. , 2003, FEMS microbiology letters.

[29]  D. Lowy,et al.  Harvesting energy from the marine sediment-water interface II. Kinetic activity of anode materials. , 2006, Biosensors & bioelectronics.

[30]  D. Nicolau,et al.  Shewanella affinis sp. nov., isolated from marine invertebrates. , 2004, International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology.

[31]  S.Lj Gojković,et al.  Kinetic study of methanol oxidation on carbon-supported PtRu electrocatalyst , 2003 .

[32]  C. Myers,et al.  Localization of cytochromes to the outer membrane of anaerobically grown Shewanella putrefaciens MR-1 , 1992, Journal of bacteriology.

[33]  Hong Liu,et al.  Electricity generation using an air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell in the presence and absence of a proton exchange membrane. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[34]  Yves Van de Peer,et al.  TREECON for Windows: a software package for the construction and drawing of evolutionary trees for the Microsoft Windows environment , 1994, Comput. Appl. Biosci..

[35]  L. Tender,et al.  Harvesting Energy from the Marine Sediment−Water Interface , 2001 .

[36]  M. Lehane,et al.  Microfloral diversity of cultured and wild strains of Psoroptes ovis infesting sheep , 2001, Parasitology.

[37]  A. Strøm,et al.  Trimethylamine oxide respiration of Alteromonas putrefaciens NCMB 1735: Na+-stimulated anaerobic transport in cells and membrane vesicles , 1984, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[38]  Byung Hong Kim,et al.  Use of acetate for enrichment of electrochemically active microorganisms and their 16S rDNA analyses. , 2003, FEMS microbiology letters.

[39]  L. Tender,et al.  Harvesting energy from the marine sediment--water interface. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[40]  Ian Bryden,et al.  CONTRIBUTIONS TO ATMOSPHERIC METHANE BY NATURAL SEEPAGES ON THE UK CONTINENTAL SHELF , 1997 .

[41]  Byung Hong Kim,et al.  A novel electrochemically active and Fe(III)-reducing bacterium phylogenetically related to Clostridium butyricum isolated from a microbial fuel cell , 2001 .

[42]  W. Verstraete,et al.  A microbial fuel cell capable of converting glucose to electricity at high rate and efficiency , 2004, Biotechnology Letters.

[43]  Dianne K. Newman,et al.  A role for excreted quinones in extracellular electron transfer , 2000, Nature.

[44]  Byung Hong Kim,et al.  Enrichment of microbial community generating electricity using a fuel-cell-type electrochemical cell , 2004, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[45]  D. Lovley,et al.  Electricity generation by direct oxidation of glucose in mediatorless microbial fuel cells , 2003, Nature Biotechnology.

[46]  A. Judd,et al.  Gas seepage on an intertidal site: Torry Bay, Firth of Forth, Scotland , 2002 .