A biofilm microreactor system for simultaneous electrochemical and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques are ideally suited for the study of biofilms and for probing their microenvironments because these techniques allow for noninvasive interrogation and in situ monitoring with high resolution. By combining NMR with simultaneous electrochemical techniques, it is possible to sustain and study live biofilms respiring on electrodes. Here, we describe a biofilm microreactor system, including a reusable and a disposable reactor, that allows for simultaneous electrochemical and NMR techniques (EC-NMR) at the microscale. Microreactors were designed with custom radio frequency resonator coils, which allowed for NMR measurements of biofilms growing on polarized gold electrodes. For an example application of this system we grew Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms on electrodes. EC-NMR was used to investigate growth medium flow velocities and depth-resolved acetate concentration inside the biofilm. As a novel contribution we used Monte Carlo error analysis to estimate the standard deviations of the acetate concentration measurements. Overall, we found that the disposable EC-NMR microreactor provided a 9.7 times better signal-to-noise ratio over the reusable reactor. The EC-NMR biofilm microreactor system can ultimately be used to correlate extracellular electron transfer rates with metabolic reactions and explore extracellular electron transfer mechanisms.

METABOLIC SPATIAL VARIABILITY IN ELECTRODE-RESPIRING GEOBACTER SULFURREDUCENS BIOFILMS

In this study, we quantified electron transfer rates, depth profiles of electron donor, and biofilm structure of Geobacter sulfurreducens biofilms using an electrochemical-nuclear magnetic resonance microimaging biofilm reactor. Our goal was to determine whether electron donor limitations existed in electron transfer processes of electrode-respiring G. sulfurreducens biofilms. Cells near the top of the biofilms consumed acetate and were metabolically active; however, acetate concentration decreased to below detection within the top 100 microns of the biofilms. Additionally, porosity in the biofilms fell below 10% near the electrode surface, exacerbating exclusion of acetate from the lower regions. The dense biofilm matrix in the acetate-depleted zone acted as an electrical conduit passing electrons generated at the top of the biofilm to the electrode. To verify the distribution of cell metabolic activity, we used uranium as a redox-active probe for localizing electron transfer activity and X-ray absorption spectroscopy to determine the uranium oxidation state. Cells near the top reduced U^VI more actively than the cells near the base. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy images showed intact, healthy cells near the top and plasmolyzed cells near the base. Contrary to models proposed in the literature, which hypothesize that cells nearest the electrode surface are the most metabolically active because of a lower electron transfer resistance, our results suggest that electrical resistance through the biofilm does not restrict long-range electron transfer. Cells far from the electrode can respire across metabolically inactive cells, taking advantage of their extracellular infrastructure produced during the initial biofilm formation.