The role of microbial diversity in microbial electrosynthesis

Abstract

The role of microbial diversity in microbial electrosynthesis Bacteria are often painted as the enemy of humanity. Before the discovery of antibiotics, a wound getting infected was frequently a death sentence. Even with modern medicine, infections such as C. difficile and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis continue to kill many people globally. Crop blights and diseases among livestock cause extensive monetary losses and threaten food security in affected areas. With all of these reasons to distrust bacteria, it may come as a surprise that certain microbes are immensely beneficial to humanity. Unfortunately, they rarely get to enjoy the limelight. Our gut microbiomes help us digest complex molecules in our food, and many of the antibiotics we discovered were invented by microbes facing competition from their neighbors. We have leveraged microbes to process sewage and waste for centuries and to ferment food for millennia.