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Cornell University: Bacteria may hold key for energy storage, biofuels.

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ENPNewswire-September 1, 2021--Cornell University: Bacteria may hold key for energy storage, biofuels

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Release date- 31082021 - Cornell bioengineer Buz Barstow, Ph.D. '09, is trying to solve a big problem: How to build a low-cost, environmentally friendly and large-scale system for storing and retrieving energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Currently, there are no sustainable methods for storing green energy, as batteries are environmentally toxic.

The answer may come in a small package; a bacteria called Shewanella oneidensis. The microbe takes electrons into its metabolism, and uses the energy to make essential precursors for 'fixing' carbon, which occurs when plants or organisms take carbon from CO2 and add it to an organic molecule, usually a sugar. Barstow is working towards engineering a new bacteria that goes a step further by using those precursor molecules to make organic molecules, such as biofuels.

A new study, 'Identification of a Pathway for Electron Uptake in Shewanella oneidensis,' published Aug. 11 in Communications Biology, describes for the first time a mechanism in Shewanella that allows the microbe to take energy into its system for use in its metabolism.

'There are only a very small number of microbes that can really store renewable electricity,' said Barstow, assistant professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the paper's senior author. He added that even fewer microbes can fix CO2.

'We want to make one,' Barstow said 'And in order to do that we need to know the genes that are involved in getting the electrons into the cell.'

In the study, the researchers used a technique called 'knockout sudoku,' which Barstow and colleagues invented to allow them to inactivate genes one by one, in order to tell their functions.

'We found a lot of genes that we already knew about for getting electrons out of the cell are also involved in getting electrons in,' Barstow said. 'Then we also found this totally new set...

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