Nanowires common in bacteria?

The practice of sprouting electrically conductive nanowires from the cell for electron transfer could be common across bacteria, not just those that reduce metal, scientists reported this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) . These findings, which appear to contradict a finding from an earlier study, could have broad implications for how microbes living in communities and biofilms distribute energy, affecting both ecology and human health, according to a study author."It's not yet certain how far-reaching these structures are, but as a strategy to transfer electrons in a community structure we could investigate whether or not [nanowires] are found in all kinds of biofilms, from marine sediments to ones in Yellowstone to biofilms of pathogens, like in cystic fibrosis or tuberculosis," coauthor Yuri Gorby at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., told The Scientist.As bacteria generate energy in the form of ATP, they must...