Bioremediation of uranium contaminated sites from former mining activities by microorganisms – a microscopic and spectroscopic approach.

Environmental pollution by metals and radionuclides is one of the biggest challenges which have to be solved globally. For in situ remediation of uranium contaminated waste waters and environments from activities such as uranium mining and uranium processing, microorganisms could be important due to their ability to immobilize radionuclides and heavy metals. To improve bioremediation strategies based on a better understanding of binding mechanisms on the molecular level we applied uranium interaction experiments with selected microorganisms from the former uranium mining site Königstein (Germany). Acidovorax facilis, the Gram-negative Betaproteobacteria, was one of the microorganisms used for our experiments. It is an aerobic and widely distributed strain in nature and commonly found in soils but also in the mine water of uranium mines. The present work describes a multidisciplinary approach combining wet chemistry, transmission electron microscopy, and spectroscopy .The results reveal that the local coordination of uranium associated with the cells of A. facilis depends upon time of incubation. Uranium biosorption by outer membrane lipopolysaccharides containing phosphoryl residues was observed within the first hours of contact between the cells and uranium. By increasing the incubation time up to 24 h the implication of carboxyl groups within the cell wall peptidoglycan was proved in addition to phosphoryl groups. To a lower extend, uranium is also coordinated to phosphoryl groups of the intracellular polyphosphate granules. This study showed that different cell compartments play a major role in the sequestration of uranium. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of microbial response to uranium and demonstrate that A. facilis may play an important role in predicting the fate and transport of uranium in uranium-contaminated sites by being a suitable candidate for bioremediation purposes.