Cable bacteria are filamentous bacteria that electrically couple sulfide oxidation and oxygen reduction at centimeter distances, and observations in sediment environments have suggested that they are motile. By time-lapse microscopy, we found that cable bacteria used gliding motility on surfaces with a highly variable speed of 0.5 ؎ 0.3 m s ؊1 (mean ؎ standard deviation) and time between reversals of 155 ؎ 108 s. They frequently moved forward in loops, and formation of twisted loops revealed helical rotation of the filaments. Cable bacteria responded to chemical gradients in their environment, and around the oxic-anoxic interface, they curled and piled up, with straight parts connecting back to the source of sulfide. Thus, it appears that motility serves the cable bacteria in establishing and keeping optimal connections between their distant electron donor and acceptors in a dynamic sediment environment. IMPORTANCEThis study reports on the motility of cable bacteria, capable of transmitting electrons over centimeter distances. It gives us a new insight into their behavior in sediments and explains previously puzzling findings. Cable bacteria greatly influence their environment, and this article adds significantly to the body of knowledge about this organism.

A sulfide-oxidizing microorganism, Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus (DA), generates a consistent enrichment of sulfur-34 (34S) in the produced sulfate of +12.5 per mil or greater. This observation challenges the general consensus that the microbial oxidation of sulfide does not result in large 34S enrichments and suggests that sedimentary sulfides and sulfates may be influenced by metabolic activity associated with sulfide oxidation. Since the DA-type sulfide oxidation pathway is ubiquitous in sediments, in the modern environment, and throughout Earth history, the enrichments and depletions in 34S in sediments may be the combined result of three microbial metabolisms: microbial sulfate reduction, the disproportionation of external sulfur intermediates, and microbial sulfide oxidation.