FLICKR, J.B HILL
The bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens lives by reducing metals, such as radioactive uranium, rendering them much less soluble and thus less of a threat to the environment. New research published yesterday (September 5) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to how they do it, seemingly without suffering any effects of the toxic substances. They use hair-like filaments known as pili to reduce, or add electrons to, the metal, and depositing the products of the reaction out into the environment via the pili, away from where they could harm the cell.
While it was known that G. sulfurreducens could reduce uranium, understanding how they do it could help researchers use the bacteria more effectively as bioremediators to clean up pollutants from the environment. ...
