RT Journal Article
T1 Evidence of competition between electrogens shaping electroactive microbial communities in microbial electrolysis cells
A1 Abadikhah, Marie
A1 De Celis Rodríguez, Miguel
A1 Persson, Frank
A1 Wilén, Britt-Marie
A1 Farewell, Anne
A1 Modin, Oskar
AB In single-chamber microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), organic compounds are oxidized at the anode, liberating electrons that are used for hydrogen evolution at the cathode. Microbial communities on the anode and cathode surfaces and in the bulk liquid determine the function of the MEC. The communities are complex, and their assembly processes are poorly understood. We investigated MEC performance and community composition in nine MECs with a carbon cloth anode and a cathode of carbon nanoparticles, titanium, or stainless steel. Differences in lag time during the startup of replicate MECs suggested that the initial colonization by electrogenic bacteria was stochastic. A network analysis revealed negative correlations between different putatively electrogenic Deltaproteobacteria on the anode. Proximity to the conductive anode surface is important for electrogens, so the competition for space could explain the observed negative correlations. The cathode communities were dominated by hydrogen-utilizing taxa such as Methanobacterium and had a much lower proportion of negative correlations than the anodes. This could be explained by the diffusion of hydrogen throughout the cathode biofilms, reducing the need to compete for space.
PB Frontiers Media
SN 1664-302X
YR 2022
FD 2022-12-16
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/123816
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/123816
LA eng
NO Abadikhah M, Rodriguez MdC, Persson F, Wilén B-M, Farewell A and Modin O (2022) Evidence of competition between electrogens shaping electroactive microbial communities in microbial electrolysis cells. Front. Microbiol. 13:959211. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.959211
NO The project was supported by funding from FORMAS (project 2018-00622). Part of the open access fee was funded by Chalmers University of Technology.
NO Formas (Sweden)
NO European Commission
NO Chalmers tekniska högskola (Sweden)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 21 mar 2026