Hijacking bacterium for energy use.

• Position: Respiratory System

For anyone suffering from cystic fibrosis or AIDS, the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is bad news. While the organism is found everywhere--including in sediment on the ocean floor--it can cause lung infections in those with weak immune systems. Researcher Dianne Newman of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, thinks her laboratory work could lead to ways of neutering the organism's threat to patients--and, at the same time, perhaps even hijack the microbe's internal chemistry for a novel method of energy generation.

Newman's approach toward the microbe is to exploit the manner in which the organism must generate energy through electron transfer reactions in order to survive. Scientists know the fine details of electron transfer about a few proteins involved in cellular energy generation, but not about the processing of redox-active small molecules produced by an organism such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Progress could lead toward new insights about the function of these molecules in biofilms.

A possible outcome of the research would be the demonstration that electron shuttles work in such a way that the human pathogen Pseudomonas...