Interactions of U(VI) with members of a microbial consortium recovered from a uranium mining waste pile: spectroscopic and microscopic studies.

In this work, a combination of wet chemistry, spectroscopic and microscopic techniques was used to investigate the interactions of U(VI) with the cells of Paenibacillus sp. JG-TB8, a bacterial strain enriched from a microbial consortium isolated from a uranium mining waste pile near the town of Johanngeorgenstadt, Germany. This consortium consisted of mesophilic 1.1b-Crenarchaeota and bacteria of the division Firmicutes.
The U(VI) sorption studies showed that cells of the studied Paenibacillus strain accumulated up to 85 mg U/g dry biomass from a solution with an uranium concentration of 120 mg U/l.
X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to characterize, at molecular scale, the local coordination of uranium associated with the cells of the studied bacterium. XANES analysis showed that the oxidation state of the U(VI) added to the cells was unchanged indicating that U(VI) was not reduced. The EXAFS spectrum of the U(VI) complexes formed by the cells of Paenibacillus sp. JG-TB8 showed a high similarity to that of meta-autunite, indicating that this radionuclide is precipitated by the cells as a meta-autunite-like phase. These uranium precipitates were located at the cell surface and intracellularly as needle-like fibrils as was demonstrated by transmission electron microscope analyses.
The results found in this study indicated that the cells of Paenibacillus sp. JG-TB8 are involved in the biomineralization of uranium at aerobic and acidic conditions.