For decades, scientists suspected that bacteria known as Geobacter could clean up radioactive uranium waste, but it wasn’t clear how the microbes did it. “The biological mechanism of how they were doing this remained elusive for 20 years,” said Gemma Reguera, the Spartan microbiologist whose team solved that mystery 10 years ago.
Now, Reguera’s team has the answer. Molecules called lipopolysaccharides coat the cell surface and soak up the uranium like a sponge. Published online August 4 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, this finding could create new ways not only to remediate dangerous pollution, but also to recycle and reclaim increasingly scarce metals from electronics waste. The next step, Reguera said, is investigating whether the Geobacter and their sponges can be encouraged to pull other toxic metals from waste streams.
As the Geobacter soak up uranium, they also start packaging it into vesicles, which are bubble-like orbs coated with the lipopolysaccharides. The bacterial cells release the vesicles and replenish their lipopolysaccharide coating to sop up more uranium. “It’s a mechanism to remodel the cell surface and ensure maximum protection. The cells produce some vesicles under normal growth conditions but increase production to get rid of the trapped uranium. We are now investigating how to scale up vesicle production,” Reguera said. “We could essentially make a factory for these vesicles to pull metals out of water.”
Source: Michigan State University
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