Scientists at Rice University have found a new kind of bacteria that can create electricity while surviving without oxygen. These bacteria can “breathe” through surfaces by sending out electric charges. The study, published in the journal Cell, shows how this works and why it could lead to big changes in biotechnology, clean energy, and even space travel.
The team was led by Caroline Ajo-Franklin, a professor of biosciences at Rice University. She and her group were trying to understand how some bacteria manage to survive in places with no oxygen, like deep in the ocean or inside the human body.
“Our research not only solves a long-standing scientific mystery, but it also points to a new and potentially widespread survival strategy in nature,” said Ajo-Franklin, who is also director of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute and a CPRIT Scholar.
Instead of using oxygen to make energy, as most living things do, these bacteria use a special type of molecule called naphthoquinones. These molecules help carry electrons from inside the bacteria to the outside world.
It’s a process called extracellular respiration. It works a lot like how a battery discharges power. This allows the bacteria to survive without oxygen by sending their electrons into nearby surfaces, like metal or other conductive materials.
“This newly discovered mechanism of respiration is a simple and ingenious way to get the job done,” said Biki Bapi Kundu, a doctoral student at Rice and the lead author of the study. “Naphthoquinones act like molecular couriers, carrying electrons out of the cell so the bacteria can break down food and generate energy.”
The scientists were curious if these bacteria could really live and grow just by breathing through surfaces. To test this, they worked with researchers from the Palsson Lab at the University of California, San Diego. Together, they used advanced computer models to simulate what would happen if bacteria were placed in environments with no oxygen but with conductive materials.
The simulations showed that the bacteria could still grow by releasing electricity onto the surface. Lab experiments later confirmed it. When bacteria were placed on conductive materials in the lab, they continued to live, grow, and make electricity.
These electricity-making bacteria could be used in wastewater treatment systems, making the process cleaner and more efficient. They could also help improve tools used in medical diagnostics and pollution monitoring. In space missions, where oxygen is limited, such bacteria could help power systems or sensors.
Caroline Ajo-Franklin explained “Our work lays the foundation for harnessing carbon dioxide through renewable electricity, where bacteria function similarly to plants with sunlight in photosynthesis. It opens the door to building smarter, more sustainable technologies with biology at the core.”
The bacteria could also help balance electron flows in different industrial processes. In many biotech and manufacturing systems, imbalances in electrons can stop machines from working properly. These bacteria could help fix that by taking away extra electrons.
Scientists have used these kinds of bacteria in the past, but they didn’t fully understand how the process worked. This study finally explains the steps behind extracellular respiration. It turns what was once a mystery into something clear and useful.
Before this study, people knew that some bacteria could produce electricity. But no one knew exactly how they did it or how common this method was in nature. The discovery at Rice University shows that this type of respiration may be more widespread than previously thought.
“This is a big step forward in our understanding of how bacteria can survive and even thrive without oxygen,” said Kundu. “It’s a simple, clever solution from nature that we can now start to use in our own technologies.”
The study’s findings may change how we think about energy, bacteria, and survival in extreme places. The electricity-producing bacteria discovered by the team at Rice University could one-day power small devices, clean our water, and help us live better lives.
Caroline Ajo-Franklin said, “It opens the door to building smarter, more sustainable technologies with biology at the core.”
