Bacterial proteins that transform iron and other minerals for energy and growth

Cleaning up polluted soil and growing crops for biofuels benefit from a deeper understanding of how microbes alter subsurface minerals. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of East Anglia, and University College London assess the state of understanding of a key enzymatic pathway employed by bacteria in these transformations: chains of proteins called multi-heme cytochromes. The proteins perform a variety of tasks, primarily acting as electron conduits, and take multipl