Kenneth H. Nealson

In the last two decades, the widespread application of genetic and genomic approaches has revealed a bacterial world astonishing in its ubiquity and diversity. This review examines how a growing knowledge of the vast range of animal-bacterial interactions, whether in shared ecosystems or intimate symbioses, is fundamentally altering our understanding of animal biology. Specifically, we highlight recent technological and intellectual advances that have changed our thinking about five questions: how have bacteria facilitated the origin and evolution of animals; how do animals and bacteria affect each other's genomes; how does normal animal development depend on bacterial partners; how is homeostasis maintained between animals and their symbionts; and how can ecological approaches deepen our understanding of the multiple levels of animal-bacterial interaction. As answers to these fundamental questions emerge, all biologists will be challenged to broaden their appreciation of these interactions and to include investigations of the relationships between and among bacteria and their animal partners as we seek a better understanding of the natural world.

Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 produced electrically conductive pilus-like appendages called bacterial nanowires in direct response to electron-acceptor limitation. Mutants deficient in genes for c-type decaheme cytochromes MtrC and OmcA, and those that lacked a functional Type II secretion pathway displayed nanowires that were poorly conductive. These mutants were also deficient in their ability to reduce hydrous ferric oxide and in their ability to generate current in a microbial fuel cell. Nanowires produced by the oxygenic phototrophic cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC6803 and the thermophilic, fermentative bacterium Pelotomaculum thermopropionicum reveal that electrically conductive appendages are not exclusive to dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria and may, in fact, represent a common bacterial strategy for efficient electron transfer and energy distribution.

Microbes that couple growth to the reduction of manganese could play an important role in the biogeochemistry of certain anaerobic environments. Such a bacterium, Alteromonas putrefaciens MR-1, couples its growth to the reduction of manganese oxides only under anaerobic conditions. The characteristics of this reduction are consistent with a biological, and not an indirect chemical, reduction of manganese, which suggest that this bacterium uses manganic oxide as a terminal electron acceptor. It can also utilize a large number of other compounds as terminal electron acceptors; this versatility could provide a distinct advantage in environments where electron-acceptor concentrations may vary.

In bioluminescent bacteria growing in shake flasks, the enzyme luciferase has been shown to be synthesized in a relatively short burst during the period of exponential growth. The luciferase gene appears to be completely inactive in a freshly inoculated culture; the pulse of preferential luciferase synthesis which occurs later is the consequence of its activation at the level of deoxyribonucleic acid transcription which is attributed to an effect of a "conditioning" of the medium by the growing of cells. Although cells grown in a minimal medium also exhibit a similar burst of synthesis of the luminescent system, the amount of synthesis is quantitatively less, relative to cell mass. Under such conditions, added arginine results in a striking stimulation of bioluminescence. This is attributed to a stimulation of existing patterns of synthesis and not to induction or derepression per se.

During the past decade, interest in chemical reactions occurring at metal oxide-aqueous solution interfaces has increased significantly because of their importance in a variety of fields, including atmospheric chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis, chemical sensing, corrosion science, environmental chemistry and geochemistry, metallurgy and ore beneficiation, metal oxide crystal growth, soil science, semiconductor manufacturing and cleaning, and tribology. The metal oxide-aqueous solution interface is reactive due to acid-base, ligand-exchange, and/or redox chemistry involving protons (hydronium ions), hydroxyl groups, aqueous metal ions, and aqueous organic species and also complexes among these species. Interfacial localization of those species (adsorption) may result from electrostatic, chemical complexation, and hydrophobic interactions chemistry and geochemistry. Indeed, hydrous oxides of Al, Fe, Mn, and aluminosilicates such as clays are ubiquitous in the natural environment, and their surface chemical properties control such important phenomena as nutrient and contaminant element release and uptake, pH buffering, water quality, and soil rheological properties. These surfaces function as templates for the growth of other solid phases and as a matrix for microflora. Polyvalent metal ions [e.g., Fe(III) and Mn(IV)] in the metal (hydr)oxide-aqueous solution interfacial region serve as terminal electron acceptors in the respiratory cycle of microorganisms common to soil, aquatic and marine sediments, and groundwater, a process of central importance to the global biogeochemical cycling of C, N, P, and other elements. Given the importance of metal oxide surfaces in these processes, surprisingly little is known about their atomic-scale structure and chemical reactivity, particularly in aqueous environments.