Cable bacterium · Bidirectional EET · Sulfur oxidizer
Candidatus Electronema spp.
Also known as cable bacteria, Desulfobulbaceae filamentous
Thermodesulfobacteriota · Desulfobulbia · Desulfobulbaceae
- Cable bacteria
- Long range EET
- Filamentous
- Novel EET
- Tier 2
01 · Identity
Identity
Where this organism sits in the tree of life, how to obtain it, and what a cell looks like.
Lineage
- domainBacteria
- ›phylumThermodesulfobacteriota
- ›classDesulfobulbia
- ›orderDesulfobulbales
- ›familyDesulfobulbaceae
- ›genusCandidatus Electronema
- ›speciesCandidatus Electronema spp.
Culture collections & accessions
Cell morphology
Multicellular filament, Gram-negative (diderm)
length 15,000 (1000–50,000) µm
- Motile: no
- Spore-forming: no
02 · Electron transfer
Electron transfer
How electrons cross the cell envelope — the property that makes a microbe useful in an electrochemical system.
Mechanisms
- Outer-membrane cytochromes: yes
- Conductive pili / nanowires: no
Other
- Long range transport
- Yes
03 · Growth envelope
Growth envelope
The conditions this organism tolerates and what it eats and breathes — the operating window for a reactor.
Energy metabolism
Electron donors
- Sulfide
- H2S
Electron acceptors
- O2
- Nitrate
Carbon sources
- CO2
- Acetate
04 · Growth & electron-transfer kinetics
Growth & electron-transfer kinetics
How fast this organism grows and how hard it pushes electrons into an anode, as the corpus reports it, and what those constants imply when you run them.
Kinetic evidence
| Parameter | Median | 10–90 % | n | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max. specific growth rate μmax | 0.005 h⁻¹ | 0.001–0.02 | 2 | genus prior · 0 refs |
| Half-saturation constant Ks | 10 mg/L | 1–50 | 1 | genus prior · 0 refs |
| Biomass yield Y | 0.02 g/g | 0.005–0.05 | 1 | genus prior · 0 refs |
| Decay coefficient kd | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Exchange current density i₀ | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Transfer coefficient α | Not in the corpus yet | |||
| Tafel slope | Not in the corpus yet | |||
Median of the extracted values, the 10–90 % spread behind it and how many values it pools.
Evidence rows (0)
Genus-level prior: Candidatus Electronema spp.
A genus-level prior is a summary for the whole genus, not a measurement on this strain.
Constants that drive the simulation
Scenario — values you set, not evidence
Growth simulation
Scenario: Initial substrate 1000 mg/L · Initial attached biomass 0.1 g/m² · Anode area per liquid volume 100 m²/m³ · Duration 72 h · Batch. Values you set, not evidence.
No current model
The current needs Max. current density jmax, Half-saturation potential E_KA, which this source does not have.
- Substrate-saturated growth
Monod growth has no lag phase; the bands mark where the net growth rate is near its maximum, falling, near zero or negative.
Simulator notes
- decayPerH absent: no endogenous decay term, so growth is an upper bound
- biofilmDensityKgPerM3 absent: thickness not computed (thicknessUm = null)
- no anodePotentialVvsShe / overpotentialV given: current not computed (currentDensityAPerM2 = null)
These curves are a Monod and Nernst-Monod idealisation (after Marcus et al. 2007 and Torres et al. 2008), parameterised only by the constants listed above: each one carries its n and its 10–90 % range, and a constant with n = 1 has no spread at all. No diffusion inside the biofilm, no detachment, no coulombic-efficiency split. The scenario values are yours, not evidence.
05 · Performance
Performance
Reported electrochemical output, the role it plays in a reactor, and what it produces.
06 · Ecology & biofilm
Ecology & biofilm
How it lives on an electrode, who it partners with, and where it is found in nature.
Biofilm
Biofilm conductivity
100 (1–10,000) S/m
Ecosystems
- Marine
- Freshwater
- Soil
- Sediment marine
- Sediment freshwater
- Rhizosphere
Isolation sources
- marine sediment
- freshwater sediment
- rhizosphere of aquatic plants
07 · Applications, engineering & safety
Applications, engineering & safety
Where it has been put to work, how tractable it is to engineer, and what handling it requires.
Applications (2)
- Bioremediation metalsTRL 2/9
- Research model organism
Biosafety
- Pathogen: no
08 · Sources & data quality
Sources & data quality
Every value above traces to a citation. This is how complete and how confident the record is.
Record quality
Literature reviewed 2026-04-26 · schema v1.2.0 · updated 2026-04-28 · imported 2026-04-28
References (2)
- Pfeffer C, et al. (2012). Filamentous bacteria transport electrons over centimetre distances. Nature 491:218-221.doi:10.1038/nature11586
- Kjeldsen KU, et al. (2019). On the evolution and physiology of cable bacteria. PNAS 116:19116-19125.doi:10.1073/pnas.1903514116