Reducing Global Temperatures by Lowering Atmospheric Methane Produced by Syntrophic Microbial Consortia Exchanging Electrons via Cytochrome Nanowires

As the second most abundant hydrocarbon in earth’s atmosphere, methane is a major driver of increasing global temperatures. Over 50% of atmospheric methane comes from microbial respiration. This team aims to harness a method of microbial respiration they have discovered to inhibit methane production and promote methane consumption. The team has developed methods to measure and image extracellular electron transfer in living microbial communities and has discovered a novel form of microbial respiration called direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) involving nanowires made of polymerized cytochromes. This project employs genomics, imaging, and modelling tools to identify strategies to control the microbial activity responsible for methane production.