Bacteria from extreme environments and their interaction with uranium(VI)

After a long lasting period of uranium mining and production in Saxony and Thuringia, Eastern Germany, mines have fallen into disuse.
Soil, subsoil and waste waters of former mines and production sites contain still high concentrations of heavy metals and radionuclides, such as uranium. Besides chemical and physical factors influencing the mobility of uranium, also microbial metabolism plays a decisive role in enhancing or retarding migration effects. For instance bacteria are able to bind uranium on the cell surface, to accumulate uranium inside the cell, to reduce or oxidize uranium or to form insoluble uranium precipitates. Intensive studies on the uranium-microbe interaction allow on the one hand to obtain a more detailed understanding of the macroscopic behaviour of uranium in nature and on the other hand the development of new innovative bioremediation strategies for cleaning uranium contaminated water and soil. Starting from several examples of microbes interacting with uranium, the lecture will give an overview about bacterial detoxification strategies, the underlying molecular mechanisms and their application potential for bioremediation.