Uranium – transfer from soil to plant cells


Uranium – transfer from soil to plant cells

Geipel, G.; Günther, A.; Viehweger, A.; Bernhard, G.

Uranium exist in low concentrations overall in the environment. Despite this ground level of uranium distribution the use of this metal in nuclear industry, agriculture, and as depleted uranium in weapons caused widespread additional contamination of this element in the environment. Depleted uranium ammunition can form uranium minerals by weathering, which later decompose and may increase the uranium concentration in the ground water [1].
This dissolved uranium may be bio-available and can be incorporated by microorganism, biofilms, algae, fungi and plants. In this way uranium reaches the food chain and can be incorporated also by the human.
Due to the extraordinary properties of uranium it is possible to study the speciation of this element under natural conditions and up to extremely low concentrations of about 50 ng/L by time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy.
We could show that the uranium speciation in compartments of living organism differ strongly. As example we follow the theoretical way of the uranium from the mineral phases after weathering to cell compartments of Arabidopsis halleri, grown on a mine tailing pile in Johanngeorgenstadt.
We could show that the uranium speciation changes from the uranium mineral phase like sabugalit to carbonate species in the aqueous environment. This dissolved uranium may be up taken by roots of plants and transported into the plant cells [2]. Compounds with phosphate and carboxylate ligands in different compartments of the living organisms were expected. By fractionation of the plant cells the uranium speciation in the several compartments was studied. Other bioligands play an additional role by reducing the hexavalent uranium .

[1] Schimmack, W.; Gerstmann, U.; Schultz, W.; Geipel, G.: Radiation and Environmental Biophysics 46(2007), 221-227
[2] Viehweger, K.; Geipel, G.: Environmental and Experimental Botany 69(2010), 39-46

Keywords: uranium; transfer; soil; plant cells; speciation

  • Contribution to proceedings
    UMH Freiberg, 18.-22.09.2011, Freiberg, Deutschland
    The New Uranium Mining Boom, Heidelberg: Springer, 978-3-642-22121-7, 821-826

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