{"id":2350,"date":"2026-09-29T01:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-29-cable-bacteria-nickel-mof-en\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:25:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:25:05","slug":"2026-09-29-cable-bacteria-nickel-mof-en","status":"publish","type":"briefing","link":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/briefing\/2026-09-29-cable-bacteria-nickel-mof-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Cable bacteria build nickel-based biological wires"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026-09-29 01:17 KST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each fibre contained about eleven intertwined ribbons roughly 1.4 nanometres wide, while nickel-rich lines continued across cell boundaries.<\/p>\n

Cable bacteria are filaments of thousands of cells. Twenty to seventy parallel fibres along their envelope connect electron transport through the chain.<\/p>\n

How the structure was identified<\/h2>\n

Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence and absorption measurements, and modelling converged on stacked nickel-bis(dithiolene) units. The protein-wrapped bundle can stay flexible like fine conductors braided inside a cable.<\/p>\n

What the conductivity numbers mean<\/h2>\n

Earlier whole-fibre estimates were 5\u2013500 S\/cm. Restricting the calculation to the ribbons gives 150\u201315,000 S\/cm, but that conversion is not device performance measured under manufacturing conditions.<\/p>\n

\"Cable
This AI-generated image explains the topic; it is not a photograph of an actual event, observation or field site.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why the result is unusual<\/h2>\n

Long-range biological electron transfer is usually explained with iron-bearing protein cofactors. This continuous nickel-centred route is a previously unknown biological architecture.<\/p>\n

What remains unknown<\/h2>\n

Researchers still need the exact ligand structure, the genes that assemble it, its environmental stability and a way to reproduce it outside the bacterium before electronics claims can be tested.<\/p>\n

Primary source and independent checks<\/h2>\n

Primary source: Nature Communications paper<\/a><\/p>\n

Institutional measurement or explanation: ESRF measurement report<\/a><\/p>\n

Independent check: University of Antwerp research overview<\/a><\/p>\n

Read in other languages<\/h2>\n

\ud55c\uad6d\uc5b4<\/a> \u00b7 English<\/a> \u00b7 Espa\u00f1ol<\/a> \u00b7 \u65e5\u672c\u8a9e<\/a> \u00b7 Ti\u1ebfng Vi\u1ec7t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers identified nickel-sulfur metal-organic nanoribbons inside fibres that let cable bacteria move electrons over centimetres in aquatic sediment. It is the first reported biologically produced metal-organic framework, not a ready-made electronic component.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":[],"class_list":["post-2350","briefing","type-briefing","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/briefing\/2350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/briefing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/briefing"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onepress.co.kr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}