Bacteria Pooping Gold: A highly toxic bacteria has been discovered that is capable of synthesizing gold from a natural compound. The researchers found that the bacteria were producing gold nuggets as feces after ingesting highly toxic compounds.
Bacteria excrete gold as feces.
Gold From Bacteria: Bacteria can convert any material into gold. If I say so, can you believe? Come to think of it, it would have been better to catch the bacteria. But whatever you think, you can't blow the whole thing off. That's because a bacterium has been discovered, which is highly toxic. That bacteria is capable of synthesizing gold from any natural compound. In 2018, a team of international researchers found that a bacterium called Cupriavidus metallidurans survived after consuming toxic metal compounds.
The researchers observed that the bacteria produced tiny gold nuggets as a side effect after ingesting the toxic compound. Incidentally, gold, like other elements of the earth, can undergo various processes. Every step of that process has microbes, which somehow survive.
How bacteria make gold
Cupriavidus Metallidurans (Cupriavidus Metallidurans) bacteria is shaped like a rod. "The results of this study involve the detoxification of gold complexes, leading to the formation of gold biominerals," geomicrobiologist Frank Reith, the principal investigator of the research, said in 2009. Exactly 9 years later, in 2018, these same researchers found the exact mechanism, which turns bacteria into gold holes. C. This bacterium, called metalliduran, can survive in soil that contains both hydrogen and various toxic heavy metals.
Bacteria do not have to go through much competition to survive in such an environment. C. Metalliduran contains copper and gold ions, which interact and cause problems by staying deep inside the bacterium. To avoid that problem, bacteria use enzymes to remove metals from their cells. This is exactly how an enzyme called CupA works for copper. In the case of gold, the enzyme is suppressed and dangerous gold and copper compounds remain inside the bacterial cells.
Another enzyme called CopA is involved here. With this, the bacterium is able to convert copper and gold compounds into forms that cannot be easily absorbed by cells. Due to this, less amount of copper and gold compounds enter the cell interior. This ensures that the bacteria are less toxic and the enzymes that remove the copper continue to get rid of it. This process also allows gold nanoparticles to appear on the surface of the bacteria, making it easier for the bacteria to excrete the gold pores as feces.
