The Colorful World of Extracellular Electron Shuttles
Abstract
Descriptions of the changeable, striking colors associated with secreted natural products date back well over a century. These molecules can serve as extracellular electron shuttles (EESs) that permit microbes to access substrates at a distance. In this review, we argue that the colorful world of EESs has been too long neglected. Rather than simply serving as a diagnostic attribute of a particular microbial strain, redox-active natural products likely play fundamental, underappreciated roles in the biology of their producers, particularly those that inhabit biofilms. Here, we describe the chemical diversity and potential distribution of EES producers and users, discuss the costs associated with their biosynthesis, and critically evaluate strategies for their economical usage. We hope this review will inspire efforts to identify and explore the importance of EES cycling by a wide range of microorganisms so that their contributions to shaping microbial communities can be better assessed and exploited.
Additional Information
© 2017 Annual Reviews. Review in Advance first posted online on July 21, 2017. We thank Leonard Tender, Matthew Yates, and members of the Newman lab for helpful comments on the manuscript; Muir Morrison, Tal Einav, and Manuel Razo for guidance in deriving the three-dimensional diffusion model; and Tomislav Ivankovic for allowing us to use his memorable microbial artwork in Figure 1. Financial support from the Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center, NIH (1R01AI127850-01A1), and ARO (W911NF-17-1-0024) enabled this work. Disclosure Statement: The authors are not aware of any affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that might be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.Attached Files
Accepted Version - nihms914123.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC5679407
- Eprint ID
- 79281
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170724-072743727
- Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center
- 1R01AI127850-01A1
- NIH
- W911NF-17-1-0024
- Army Research Office (ARO)
- Created
-
2017-07-24Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Rosen Bioengineering Center, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences