Electrochemical Microwell Plate to Study Electroactive Microorganisms in Parallel and Real-Time

Abstract

Microbial resource mining of electroactive microorganism (EAM) is currently methodically hampered due to unavailable electrochemical screening tools. Here, we introduce an electrochemical microwell plate (ec-MP) composed of a 96 electrochemical deepwell plate and a recently developed 96-channel multipotentiostat. Using the ec-MP we investigated the electrochemical and metabolic properties of the EAM models Shewanella oneidensis and Geobacter sulfurreducens with acetate and lactate as electron donor combined with an individual genetic analysis of each well. Electrochemical cultivation of pure cultures achieved maximum current densities (jmax) and coulombic efficiencies (CE) that were well in line with literature data. The co-cultivation of S. oneidensis and G. sulfurreducens led to an increased current density of jmax of 88.57 ± 14.04 µA cm−2 (lactate) and jmax of 99.36 ± 19.12 µA cm−2 (lactate and acetate). Further, a decreased time period of reaching jmax and biphasic current production was revealed and the microbial electrochemical performance could be linked to the shift in the relative abundance.

Magnetic Bead Manipulation in Microfluidic Chips for Biological Application

“…Besides, the evaporation-assisted seeding process may cause protein denaturation and the loss of enzyme activity, which limits its biological application. Currently, microwells are commonly prepared by microfabrication such as photolithography [ 107 , 108 ], electrochemical micromachining [ 109 , 110 ], and microcontact printing [ 111 , 112 ]. To improve the loading efficiency of the magnetic beads, microwells with a hydrophilic bottom and hydrophobic interwell surface have been manufactured [ 113 , 114 ].…”

Novel species identification and deep functional annotation of electrogenic biofilms, selectively enriched in a microbial fuel cell array

“…They later developed, a 96-well electrofluidic array using the same fabrication method ( Tahernia et al, 2020 ). Recently, another 96-microwell device (four 24-well modules) was demonstrated, with three electrodes and gas outlets to maintain anaerobic environment ( Kuchenbuch et al, 2022 ). These newly developed MFC platforms allow higher precision in comparative studies of electrogenic biofilms.…”