Bacterial extracellular electron transfer components are spin selective

Christina M. Niman, Nir Sukenik, Tram Dang, Justus Nwachukwu, Miyuki A. Thirumurthy, Anne K. Jones, Ron Naaman, Kakali Santra, Tapan K. Das, Yossi Paltiel, Lech Tomasz Baczewski, Mohamed Y. El-Naggar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Metal-reducing bacteria have adapted the ability to respire extracellular solid surfaces instead of soluble oxidants. This process requires an electron transport pathway that spans from the inner membrane, across the periplasm, through the outer membrane, and to an external surface. Multiheme cytochromes are the primary machinery for moving electrons through this pathway. Recent studies show that the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect is observable in some of these proteins extracted from the model metal-reducing bacteria, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. It was hypothesized that the CISS effect facilitates efficient electron transport in these proteins by coupling electron velocity to spin, thus reducing the probability of backscattering. However, these studies focused exclusively on the cell surface electron conduits, and thus, CISS has not been investigated in upstream electron transfer components such as the membrane-associated MtrA, or periplasmic proteins such as small tetraheme cytochrome (STC). By using conductive probe atomic force microscopy measurements of protein monolayers adsorbed onto ferromagnetic substrates, we show that electron transport is spin selective in both MtrA and STC. Moreover, we have determined the spin polarization of MtrA to be ∼77% and STC to be ∼35%. This disparity in spin polarizations could indicate that spin selectivity is length dependent in heme proteins, given that MtrA is approximately two times longer than STC. Most significantly, our study indicates that spin-dependent interactions affect the entire extracellular electron transport pathway.

Original languageEnglish
Article number145101
Number of pages8
JournalThe Journal of Chemical Physics
Volume159
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 14 Oct 2023

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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