Cytochrome "nanowires" are physically limited to sub-picoamp currents that suffice for cellular respiration.

ABSTRACT: Mineral-respiring microorganisms from hydrothermal vents to terrestrial soils express filaments that electrically connect intracellular respiration to extracellular geochemistry. Filaments dubbed "cytochrome nanowires" (CNs) have been resolved by CryoEM, but whether they are the two-decades-long sought-after physiological "nanowires" remains unproven. To assess their functional competence, we analyzed biological redox conduction in all CNs by computing driving forces in the presence of redox anti-cooperativities, reorganization energies with electronic polarizability, and Marcus rates for diffusive and protein-limited flux models. The chain of heme cofactors in any CN must be densely packed to realize weak (≤0.01 eV) electronic coupling for electron transfer, as evidenced by a single Soret

SUBMITTER: Guberman-Pfeffer MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11936953 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature