Bray, Marcus S.Wu, JieyingPadilla, Cory C.Stewart, Frank J.Fowle, David A.Henny, CynthiaSimister, Rachel L.Thompson, Katharine J.Crowe, Sean A.Glass, Jennifer B.2022-02-042022-02-042019-11-07Bray, M.S., Wu, J., Padilla, C.C., Stewart, F.J., Fowle, D.A., Henny, C., Simister, R.L., Thompson, K.J., Crowe, S.A. and Glass, J.B. (2020), Phylogenetic and structural diversity of aromatically dense pili from environmental metagenomes. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 12: 49-57. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.12809https://hdl.handle.net/1808/32490This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bray, M.S., Wu, J., Padilla, C.C., Stewart, F.J., Fowle, D.A., Henny, C., Simister, R.L., Thompson, K.J., Crowe, S.A. and Glass, J.B. (2020), Phylogenetic and structural diversity of aromatically dense pili from environmental metagenomes. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 12: 49-57. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.12809, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.12809. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.Electroactive type IV pili, or e-pili, are used by some microbial species for extracellular electron transfer. Recent studies suggest that e-pili may be more phylogenetically and structurally diverse than previously assumed. Here, we used updated aromatic density thresholds (≥9.8% aromatic amino acids, ≤22-aa aromatic gaps and aromatic amino acids at residues 1, 24, 27, 50 and/or 51, and 32 and/or 57) to search for putative e-pilin genes in metagenomes from diverse ecosystems with active microbial metal cycling. Environmental putative e-pilins were diverse in length and phylogeny, and included truncated e-pilins in Geobacter spp., as well as longer putative e-pilins in Fe(II)-oxidizing Betaproteobacteria and Zetaproteobacteria.© 2019 Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Article10.1111/1758-2229.12809PMC7779115openAccess