Selection of organisms for systems biology study of microbial electricity generation: a review

A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a device that uses microorganisms as biocatalysts to transform chemical energy or light energy into electricity. However, the commercial applications of MFCs are limited by their performance. This review presents the perspective that in silico metabolic modelling based on genome-scale metabolic networks can be used for understanding the metabolisms of the anodic microorganisms and optimizes the performance of their metabolic networks for MFCs. This is in contrast to conventional research that focuses on engineering designs and study of biological aspects of MFCs to improve interactions of anode and microorganisms. Four categories of biocatalysts - microalgae, cyanobacteria, geobacteria and yeast - are nominated for future in silico constraint-based modelling of MFCs after taking into account the cell type, operation mode, electron source and the availability of metabolic network specifications. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of each organism for MFCs are discussed and compared.