Interaction of uranium with isolated microorganisms of the former uranium mine Königstein (Saxony, Germany)

The uranium waste mine Königstein (Saxony, Germany) is heavily polluted with heavy metals, especially with uranium. Despite the high concentrations of heavy metals, the mine is a reservoir for many different microorganisms that have evolved special strategies to survive in these extreme environments. Their ubiquitous occurrence is of fundamental interest to understand the migration behavior of radionuclides within the biosphere. Furthermore, microorganisms are the beginning of the food chain, and therefore the transfer of bound uranium along this food chain could rise to a serious threat to human health. Biosorption of radionuclides especially uranium by microorganisms regulates the mobility of the metal in the environment. Thus, microorganisms could be used to clean-up contaminated soils, sediments, and waters by removing uranium and other radionuclides, due to bioremediation processes.