After receiving the great news that the Novo Nordisk Foundation will support research in my lab on electromethanogenesis for the following 5 years, I’ve been interviewed by several journalists about the proposed work.
We studied how microbial communities from climate lake sediments promote microbial-influenced Fe0 corrosion when no other electron donor and acceptors are available.
Observed that Clostridia and Methanobacterium were the only groups detected after 11 subsequent transfers solely with zero valent iron (Fe0) as the electron donor.
Methanobacterium were ineffective corroders in the absence of the acetogens, although they do not use acetate for methanogenesis. These results suggested that acetogens promote hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis in other ways.
Observed that cell exudates (spent media filtrate extracted during the acetogenesis phase) promoted H2-evolution from Fe0, partially due to thermolabile enzymes and partially due to non-thermolabile constituents released by cells.
Clostridial [FeFe] hydrogenases were abundant in the metagenome of this corrosive community and may play a role in promoting hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis.
