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Geobacter

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definition

Geobacter is the name of a genus that is located within the Deltaproteobacteria comprising several species of Fe(III)-reducing bacteria (Lovley et al., 1993). The genus Geobacter represents the type genus of the family Geobacteraceae which includes also the genera Desulfuromonas, Desulfuromusa, Geoalkalibacter, Geopsychrobacter, Geothermobacter, Malonomonas, and Pelobacter.

The type species of the genus Geobacter is Geobacter metallireducens strain GS-15, which was enriched and isolated from pristine freshwater sediments of the Potomac River with acetate as the electron donor and poorly crystalline ferric iron as the electron acceptor. In addition to pristine aquatic habitats, Geobacter species were isolated from deep aquifer sediments (e.g., G. chapellei), subsurface sediments (e.g., G. bemidjiensis), or various contaminated sites (e.g., G. sulfurreducens). Cells of Geobacter species stain Gram-negative and are non-spore-forming. All Geobacterspecies have midrange...

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Bibliography

  • Lovley, D. R., Giovannoni, S. J., White, D. C., Champine, J. E., Phillips, E. J., Gorby, Y. A., and Goodwin, S., 1993. Geobacter metallireducens gen. nov. sp. nov., a microorganism capable of coupling the complete oxidation of organic compounds to the reduction of iron and other metals. Archives of Microbiology, 159, 336–344.

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Straub, K.L. (2011). Geobacter. In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_99

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