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On-going applications of Shewanella species in microbial electrochemical system for bioenergy, bioremediation and biosensing

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Abstract

Microbial electrochemical system (MES) has attracted ever-growing interest as a promising platform for renewable energy conversion and bioelectrochemical remediation. Shewanella species, the dissimilatory metal reduction model bacteria with versatile extracellular electron transfer (EET) strategies, are the well-received microorganisms in diverse MES devices for various practical applications as well as microbial EET mechanism investigation. Meanwhile, the available genomic information and the unceasing established gene-editing toolbox offer an unprecedented opportunity to boost the applications of Shewanella species in MES. This review thoroughly summarizes the status quo of the applications of Shewanella species in microbial fuel cells for bioelectricity generation, microbial electrosynthesis for biotransformation of valuable chemicals and bioremediation of environment-hazardous pollutants with synoptical discussion on their EET mechanism. Recent advances in rational design and genetic engineering of Shewanella strains for either promoting the MES performance or broadening their applications are surveyed. Moreover, some emerging applications beyond electricity generation, such as biosensing and biocomputing, are also documented. The challenges and perspectives for Shewanella-based MES are also discussed elaborately for the sake of not only discovering new scientific lights on microbial extracellular respiratory but also propelling practical applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (No. 20181BAB213004), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. XDJK2018B003) and the Sponsored Program for Cultivating Youths of Outstanding Ability in Jiangxi Normal University.

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  1. College of Life Sciences, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330022, China

    Long Zou, Yun-hong Huang & Zhong-er Long

  2. Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials, Faculty of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Yan Qiao

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  1. Long Zou
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  2. Yun-hong Huang
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Correspondence to Zhong-er Long or Yan Qiao.

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Zou, L., Huang, Yh., Long, Ze. et al. On-going applications of Shewanella species in microbial electrochemical system for bioenergy, bioremediation and biosensing. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 35, 9 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-018-2576-7

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