INTRODUCTION
The mechanisms for U(VI) reduction in
Geobacter species are of interest because the precipitation of U(VI) to U(IV) is a promising strategy for the
in situ bioremediation of uranium-contaminated groundwater, and
Geobacter species often predominate in subsurface environments in which U(VI) reduction is stimulated with the addition of organic electron donors (
1,
2). The suggestion that electrons are directly transferred from the conductive pili of
Geobacter sulfurreducens to U(VI) (
3,
4) contrasts with the finding that pili are not required for the reduction of other soluble extracellular electron acceptors, such as Fe(III) citrate or the humic substances analog anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS) (
5,
6).
Pili are required for long-range electron transport to insoluble electron acceptors in the
Geobacter species that have been examined to date. This includes reduction of insoluble Fe(III) oxides (
5,
7) and electron exchange between syntrophic partners (
8,
9), as well as electron conduction through current-producing biofilms (
10–12). This has been attributed to the metallic-like conductivity of the pili (
12,
13). For example, a strain of
G. sulfurreducens, designated Aro-5, which was genetically modified to produce pili with diminished conductivity lacked the capacity for effective Fe(III) oxide reduction and current production (
13). In addition to pili,
G. sulfurreducens requires the multiheme
c-type cytochrome, OmcS, for Fe(III) oxide reduction (
14). OmcS is specifically localized on the pili (
15). Thus, the simplest model for the last steps in Fe(III) oxide reduction is electron transport to OmcS via the pili, with OmcS facilitating electron transfer from the pili to Fe(III) oxide (
16,
17). In a similar manner, networks of pili facilitate long-range electron transport through conductive biofilms of
G. sulfurreducens, but one or more multiheme cytochromes are required to promote electron transfer from the biofilm to electrodes (
11,
18,
19).
Gene deletion studies demonstrated that in contrast to the requirement of OmcS for Fe(III) oxide reduction, OmcS was not essential for the reduction of Fe(III) citrate or AQDS (
6,
14), consistent with the ability of the pilus-deficient strain to reduce these electron acceptors (
5,
6). In order to significantly reduce the capacity for AQDS reduction, it was necessary to delete the genes for five outer-surface
c-type cytochromes in one strain (
6). These included OmcS and the OmcS homolog OmcT, as well as OmcE, OmcZ, and OmcB. Immunolabeling studies have demonstrated that OmcB is embedded in the outer membrane of
G. sulfurreducens, with a portion of the molecule exposed to the extracellular environment (
20), whereas OmcZ (
19) and OmcE (
14) are localized in the extracellular matrix. The necessity to remove all of these cytochromes suggested that AQDS reduction is rather nonspecific. Although deleting just OmcB significantly eliminated the capacity for Fe(III) citrate reduction (
21), the OmcB-deficient mutant adapted over time to reduce Fe(III) citrate in the absence of OmcB, with increased expression of other outer-surface cytochromes (
22).
A diversity of
c-type cytochromes can reduce U(VI)
in vitro (
18,
23–25). Furthermore,
c-type cytochromes are essential for U(VI) reduction in
Shewanella oneidensis, which accumulates uranium nanoparticles in association with the outer membrane cytochromes (
25). Previous studies also suggested that
c-type cytochromes exposed on the outer surface of
G. sulfurreducens were involved in U(VI) reduction (
26). An important line of evidence for a potentially important role of pili in U(VI) reduction was the finding that a
pilA-deficient mutant reduced U(VI) at a rate ca. one-third the rate at which the wild type reduced U(VI) (
3). However, the
pilA-deficient mutant was also defective in the production of outer-surface
c-type cytochromes (
3), confounding interpretation of the results. These considerations and the recent availability of the Aro-5 strain led us to further investigate the hypothesis that pili are a major conduit for electron transfer to U(VI) by
G. sulfurreducens.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank S. Dar, M. Barlett, and P. Tremblay for helpful discussion.
This research was supported by the Office of Science (Office of Biological and Environmental Research), U.S. Department of Energy, award number DE-SC0004114. R.O. was supported by a Fulbright-CONICYT 2008 Equal Opportunities Scholarship. The work of L.R.C. and R.C. was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Work at the Molecular Foundry (EDS analysis) was supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The SLAC SFA (N.J.) was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), work package number 10094. SSRL is a USDOE User Facility operated by Stanford University. The SSRL Structural Molecular Biology Program is supported by DOE-SC-BER and by the NIH Institute of General Medical Sciences (including P41GM103393) and the National Center for Research Resources (P41RR001209).
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