A metal-gobbling bacteria manages to ingest toxic metallic compounds and still thrive, producing tiny gold nuggets as a side-effect, scientists have found. High concentrations of heavy metals, like copper and gold, are toxic for most living creatures, researchers said.
However, that is not the case for the bacterium C metallidurans, found in soils enriched with heavy metals, which has found a way to extract valuable trace elements from a compound of heavy metals without poisoning itself. The bacteria produces tiny gold nuggets as a side-effect, according to the study published in the journal Metallomics .
A team of researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany has discovered the molecular processes that take place inside the bacteria.
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It transforms toxic gold particles into harmless gold particles, researchers said.