title: Characterization of a novel strain phylogenetically related to Kocuria rhizophila and its chemical modification to improve performance of microbial fuel cells.
abstract: It is certainly an important research area to discovery new exoelectrogens for microbial fuel cells (MFCs), and how to effectively manipulate its cell property to improve power performance is still a great challenge. In this study, a new electrochemically active bacterium phylogenetically related to Kocuria rhizophila was first isolated and found electrogenic in MFCs, which was identified through the combination methods of molecular biology, physiological, biochemical and morphological characteristics. The MFCs inoculated with this strain generated power from a wide variety of substrates, reached a maximum power density of 75mW/m(2) in the substrate of 1g/L glucose. And the electron transfer mechanism was confirmed to be dominantly direct biofilm mechanism. Chemical treatment with five reagents was verified to be a feasible strategy to improve the power density of MFCs, increasing approximately 1.75 fold at most after treated with lysozyme. This enhancement was contributed to the significant enhancement on cell permeability, cell membrane fluidity and Coenzyme Q10 (the electron carrier). Thus this work offered a novel Gram-positive electrogenic bacterium and proved chemical treatment was a feasible strategy to improve electron transfer for application in MFCs.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology (Tianjin University of Science &Technology), Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Lab of Industrial Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China. Electronic address: luojianmei@tust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jianmei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Industrial Fermentation Microbiology (Tianjin University of Science &Technology), Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Lab of Industrial Microbiology, College of Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, PR China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pollution Process and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Urban Ecology Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China. Electronic address: zhoumh@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Minghua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pollution Process and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Urban Ecology Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
authors.forename: Youshuang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D004566:Electrodes / Q000382:microbiology*; D004579:Electron Transport; D004735:Energy Transfer / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008835:Micrococcaceae / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009113:Muramidase / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D009113:Muramidase
keywords: Chemical modification; Electricigens; Electron transfer mechanism; Kocuria rhizophila; Microbial fuel cells