The
fate and transport of bacteria in porous media are essential
for bioremediation and water quality control. However, the influence
of biological activities like extracellular electron transfer (EET)
and swimming motility toward granular media on cell transport remains
unknown. Here, electroactive bacteria with higher Fe(III) reduction
abilities were found to demonstrate greater retention in ferrihydrite-coated
sand. Increasing the concentrations of the electron donor (1–10
mM lactate), shuttle (0–50 μM anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate),
and acceptor (ferrihydrite, MnO2, or biochar) under flow
conditions significantly reduced Shewanella oneidensis MR-1’s mobility through redox-active porous media. The deficiency
of EET ability or flagellar motion and inhibition of intracellular
proton motive force, all of which are essential for energy taxis,
enhanced MR-1’s transport. It was proposed that EET could facilitate
MR-1 to sense, tactically move toward, and attach on redox-active
media surface, eventually improving its retention. Positive linear
correlations were established among parameters describing MR-1’s
energy taxis ability (relative taxis index), cell transport behavior
(dispersion coefficient and relative change of effluent percentage),
and redox activity of media surface (reduction potential or electron-accepting
rate), providing novel insights into the critical impacts of bacterial
microscale motility on macroscale cell transport through porous media.