Biomedical subjects

Alice C Dohnalkova

Publications and source records attributed to Alice C Dohnalkova.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Metal reduction and iron biomineralization by a psychrotolerant Fe(III)-reducing bacterium, Shewanella sp. strain PV-4.

A marine psychrotolerant, dissimilatory Fe(III)-reducing bacterium, Shewanella sp. strain PV-4, from the microbial mat at a hydrothermal vent of Loihi Seamount in the Pacific Ocean has been further characterized, with emphases on metal reduction and iron biomineralization. The strain is able to reduce metals such as Fe(III), Co(III), Cr(VI), Mn(IV), and U(VI) as electron acceptors while using lactate, formate, pyruvate, or hydrogen as an electron donor. Growth during iron reduction occurred over the pH range of 7.0 to 8.9, a sodium chloride range of 0.05 to 5%, and a temperature range of 0 to 37 degrees C, with an optimum growth temperature of 18 degrees C. Unlike mesophilic dissimilatory Fe(III)-reducing bacteria, which produce mostly superparamagnetic magnetite (<35 nm), this psychrotolerant bacterium produces well-formed single-domain magnetite (>35 nm) at temperatures from 18 to 37 degrees C. The genome size of this strain is about 4.5 Mb. Strain PV-4 is sensitive to a variety of commonly used antibiotics except ampicillin and can acquire exogenous DNA (plasmid pCM157) through conjugation.

Bacterial Typing Techniques↗

PubMed2006

c-Type cytochrome-dependent formation of U(IV) nanoparticles by Shewanella oneidensis.

Modern approaches for bioremediation of radionuclide contaminated environments are based on the ability of microorganisms to effectively catalyze changes in the oxidation states of metals that in turn influence their solubility. Although microbial metal reduction has been identified as an effective means for immobilizing highly-soluble uranium(VI) complexes in situ, the biomolecular mechanisms of U(VI) reduction are not well understood. Here, we show that c-type cytochromes of a dissimilatory metal-reducing bacterium, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, are essential for the reduction of U(VI) and formation of extracellular UO(2) nanoparticles. In particular, the outer membrane (OM) decaheme cytochrome MtrC (metal reduction), previously implicated in Mn(IV) and Fe(III) reduction, directly transferred electrons to U(VI). Additionally, deletions of mtrC and/or omcA significantly affected the in vivo U(VI) reduction rate relative to wild-type MR-1. Similar to the wild-type, the mutants accumulated UO(2) nanoparticles extracellularly to high densities in association with an extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). In wild-type cells, this UO(2)-EPS matrix exhibited glycocalyx-like properties and contained multiple elements of the OM, polysaccharide, and heme-containing proteins. Using a novel combination of methods including synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy and high-resolution immune-electron microscopy, we demonstrate a close association of the extracellular UO(2) nanoparticles with MtrC and OmcA (outer membrane cytochrome). This is the first study to our knowledge to directly localize the OM-associated cytochromes with EPS, which contains biogenic UO(2) nanoparticles. In the environment, such association of UO(2) nanoparticles with biopolymers may exert a strong influence on subsequent behavior including susceptibility to oxidation by O(2) or transport in soils and sediments.

Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins↗

PubMed2004

Uranium immobilization by sulfate-reducing biofilms.

Hexavalent uranium [U(VI)] was immobilized using biofilms of the sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB) Desulfovibrio desulfuricans G20. The biofilms were grown in flat-plate continuous-flow reactors using lactate as the electron donor and sulfate as the electron acceptor. U(VI)was continuously fed into the reactor for 32 weeks at a concentration of 126 microM. During this time, the soluble U(VI) was removed (between 88 and 96% of feed) from solution and immobilized in the biofilms. The dynamics of U immobilization in the sulfate-reducing biofilms were quantified by estimating: (1) microbial activity in the SRB biofilm, defined as the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) production rate and estimated from the H2S concentration profiles measured using microelectrodes across the biofilms; (2) concentration of dissolved U in the solution; and (3) the mass of U precipitated in the biofilm. Results suggest that U was immobilized in the biofilms as a result of two processes: (1) enzymatically and (2) chemically, by reacting with microbially generated H2S. Visual inspection showed that the dissolved sulfide species reacted with U(VI) to produce a black precipitate. Synchrotron-based U L3-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy analysis of U precipitated abiotically by sodium sulfide indicated that U(VI) had been reduced to U(IV). Selected-area electron diffraction pattern and crystallographic analysis of transmission electron microscope lattice-fringe images confirmed the structure of precipitated U as being that of uraninite.

Biofilms↗