Abstract
The biomineralization of intracellular magnetite in magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) is an area of active investigation. Previous work has provided evidence that magnetite biomineralization begins with the formation of an amorphous phosphate-rich ferric hydroxide precursor phase followed by the eventual formation of magnetite within specialized vesicles (magnetosomes) through redox chemical reactions. Although important progress has been made in elucidating the different steps and possible precursor phases involved in the biomineralization process, many questions still remain. Here, we present a novelin vitromethod to form magnetite directly from a mixed valence iron phosphate precursor, without the involvement of other known iron hydroxide precursors such as ferrihydrite. Our results corroborate the idea that phosphate containing phases likely play an iron storage role during magnetite biomineralization. Further, our results help elucidate the influence of phosphate ions on iron chemistry in groundwater and wastewater treatment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 9458-9465 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Chemical Science |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 27 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 21 Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Drs Jessica Walker and Christos Malliakas for technical assistance. We thank Robert F. Free for setting up the XANES pre-edge Matlab script. The work of G. M. was supported by the Technology Foundation STW, the Applied Science Division of The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Weten-schappelijk onderzoek, NWO). The work of M. G. was supported through a NAF-Fulbright research grant. The work of L. S. was supported by a research fellowship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (STE2689/1-1). This work was in part supported by the National Science Foundation (DMR-1905982). This work made use of the IMSERC X-RAY facility at Northwestern University, which has received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), and Northwestern University. Portions of this work were performed at GeoSoilEnviroCARS (The University of Chicago, Sector 13), APS, Argonne National Laboratory. GeoSoilEnviroCARS is supported by the National Science Foundation - Earth Sciences (EAR - 1634415) and Department of Energy-GeoSciences (DE-FG02-94ER14466). This research used resources of the APS, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.