Published February 12, 2010
| public
Journal Article
Feasting on Minerals
- Creators
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Newman, Dianne K.
Abstract
Far up in the Chilean Andes, in remote arid regions seemingly inhospitable to life, intrepid microorganisms thrive on a diet of rocks and air. Unfazed by long periods of desiccation or high ultraviolet energy flux, they grow in baths of sulfuric acid replete with toxic metals. The microbes fix carbon dioxide into biomass by exploiting the energy to be gained by "eating" (oxidizing) minerals that contain reduced forms of iron and sulfur, such as chalcopyrite (CuFeS_2). Through their metabolism, these microbes mobilize precious metals from ore deposits into solution, making them powerful catalysts for biomining (see the first figure) (1). Recent research has begun to elucidate how they achieve this remarkable feat.
Additional Information
© 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science. The author is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which has supported her laboratory's research on Fe(II) oxidation together with the Dreyfus Foundation and the NSF. The author thanks A. Poulain, J. D. Newman, and J. Peters for comments on the manuscript, and A. Bose for help in preparing the second fi gure.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 37452
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130311-151426036
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
- Dreyfus Foundation
- NSF
- Created
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2013-03-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences