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A new study shows that the bacteria that cause diarrhea in the human gastrointestinal tract can generate electrical current.
A bioelectrochemical process known as extracellular electron transfer, or EET, in Listeria monocytogenes generates bacterial electricity, said researchers at the University of California at Berkeley in a study published in Nature. This bacterium is a foodborne pathogen that causes listeriosis, an infection that can lead to serious diseases such as sepsis and encephalitis in people whose immune systems are weakened.
Other bacteria can generate electrical currents, including bacteria that cause gangrene or streptococcus, as well as bacteria. lactobacilli used in the fermentation of yogurt, a blog post on the U.C. study The Berkeley website said. The process EET process of electrogenesis found in L. monocytogenes is different, in that it is simpler, which, according to a Berkeley researcher, "makes the transfer of electrons out of the cell much easier and more profitable."
Some bacteria generate electrical currents to eliminate the electrons produced during metabolism – the bacterial equivalent of humans breathing oxygen. The newly discovered process involves bacteria with a single-cell wall, allowing bacteria causing listeriosis to easily transport electrons through their cell wall and into their external environment in the form of tiny currents.
"The fact that so many bugs that interact with humans, whether as pathogens or probiotics or in our microbiota or involved in the fermentation of human products, are electrogenic," said Dan Portnoy, a professor at UC Berkeley. conduct the study. "That could tell us a lot about how these bacteria infect us or help us have a healthy gut."
Insight is helpful beyond the knowledge that there may be tiny electrical storms inside your belly. In addition to the benefits it could bring to the promotion of digestive health, the results of the study could contribute to the development of bioenergy technologies, such as so-called living batteries, which could generate clean energy generated by bacteria in factories waste treatment.
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