---
title: "Geobacter sulfurreducens"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "concept"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Geobacter sulfurreducens"
aliases: ["Geobacter"]
first_seen: "2026-07-11T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-opus-4-8"
connects_to: ["extracellular electron transfer","microbial nanowires","cytochrome","e-pili","cable bacteria"]
---


A metal-reducing bacterium and the model organism for research on extracellular
electron transfer — the ability of a microbe to move electrons from inside the
cell onto external acceptors (minerals, electrodes) across distances far larger
than a single cell. It is the organism at the center of the long-running dispute
over what its conductive "nanowires" actually are: PilA-based conductive pili
(the original e-pili model) or polymerized multi-heme cytochrome filaments (the
current leading structural model). Matters to this vault as the anchor of its
electromicrobiology thread and a foil to cable bacteria, whose distinct
non-redox nickel-wire mechanism it is repeatedly contrasted against.

## References
- [[claim-lovley-2005-proposed-geobacter-nanowires-are-conductive-pili]]
- [[claim-geobacter-conductive-filaments-are-omcs-cytochrome-polymers]]
- [[claim-geobacter-pili-are-secretory-pseudopili-not-nanowires]]
- [[claim-malvankar-lab-overturned-pili-model-without-lovley]]
- [[claim-2024-paper-disputes-geobacter-cytochrome-nanowire-conductivity]]
- [[claim-cable-bacteria-conduct-through-nickel-protein-wire]] (contrasting organism/mechanism)