Current production by a deep-sea strain Shewanella sp. DS1

Electricity-generating bacteria have attracted intensive studies in recent years as an important resource for energy generation. In this investigation, a bacterial isolate capable of producing electric current during fermentation processes was obtained from a deep-sea hydrothermal field in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. The strain, assigned to Shewanella sp. DS1 based on its 16S-rRNA sequence analysis, grew at the optimum temperature of 30 degrees C and optimum pH of 6.5. The results showed that the electric current generated by the strain increased during the first few hours and eventually reached the maximum (0.29 mA) at approximately 15 hours after inoculation. The electric current, however, decreased slowly as time increased. Thus, our study demonstrated that the deep sea promises to be a good reservoir for screening electricity-generating microbes.