Invited Talk 21st International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry 2025

Cryo-EM of cytochrome nanowires (122830)

Fengbin Wang 1
  1. University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States

Microbial nanowires enable bacteria and archaea to transfer electrons to external surfaces like minerals, electrodes, or other microbes. Once thought to be modified pili, recent near-atomic resolution cryo-EM structures have fundamentally changed this view, revealing they are polymers of multi-heme c-type cytochromes. This presentation explores the discovery of microbial nanowires, details their cryo-EM structures, and analyzes the impact of heme arrangement on electron transfer rates. Understanding these structures provides crucial insights into biological long-range electron transport and points towards applications in bioelectronics and microbial fuel cells.