Time-dependent distribution of silicon in intact cells and cell-free extracts of Proteus mirabilis as a model of bacterial silicon transport

Heinen, W.

doi:10.1016/0003-9861(65)90165-7

Cited by 23 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…If we now take into consideration the various reports with regard to the utilization of monomer silica--as for instance the shell formation by diatoms (Lewin, 1957;Lewin et al, 1966), the biosynthesis of carbohydrate esters by plants and bacteria (Engel, 1953;Heinen, 1965a), its incorporation into several fractions (u et al, 1962a, b;Heinen, 1965b), and the exchange of silicate for other ions, like phosphate and sulfate (Heinen, 1962(Heinen, , 1965b(Heinen, , 1966 --a cyclic process of mineralysis, uptake, binding, and polymerization emerges (Fig. 7).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Bio-degradation and utilization of silica and quartz

Lauwers

Heinen

1974

Arch. Microbiol.

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Summary. A mesophilic bacterium, Proteus mirabilis, which was known to be able to accumulate monomer silicate ions, a thermophilic bacterium, Bacillus caldolyticus, originating from a habitat with high silica concentrations, and a silicautilizing plant, Equisetum arvense, were all found to produce monomer silica from its polymer. The monomer silica, resulting from the mineralysis of either experimentally polymerized silica, or from quartz, is taken up by P. mirabilis cells, and also by Equisetum, which then deposits the silica again as a polymer in its stem and leaves. With B. caldolyticus, which does not utilize the depolymerized product under the given cor/ditions, we found that the intensity of the minerMysis depends on the growth rate of the organism.Many investigators have demonstrated in recent years that various plants and microorganisms, including molds, diatoms and bacteria, are able to incorporate silicate ions from a silica-containing medium (Okuda and Takahashi, 1964;Yoshida et al., 1959Yoshida et al., , 1962a tIolzapfel and Engel, 1959;Lewin, 1955Lewin, , 1957Lewin et al., 1966). Most of these studies have been conducted under laboratory conditions, the silica being supplied in its monomer state. This was also the ease in our experiments on bacterial silicon metabolism (Heinen, 1962(Heinen, , 1963a(Heinen, , 1965a. In nature, however, silica scarcely occurs as a monomer, but is in the contrary mostly present in a more or less polymerized form. In most experiments on bacterial silicon metabolism this fact has so far been neglected, so that there remains a gap between the laboratory conditions and the true state given in a natural environment.There are, however, many reports that naturally occurring silica can be depolymerized and solubilized by biological action. Okuda and Takahashi (1964) for instance have shown that the concentration of monomer soluble silica in the bleeding sap exuded from cut rice stems vastly exceeds the concentration of the environment, where only high amounts of polymer silica were available. This can only be interpreted as a depolymerization process, leading to the release of monomer silica from the polymerized material. Holzapfel and Engel (1954) used quartz suspension for their experiments with molds, and reported the incorporation of monomer silica. That bacteria are also able to depolymerize crystalline silicates has been shown by Webley et al. (1960) and the release of A1, Mg, and SiO~ by fungal action from rocks has been described (Henderson and Duff, 1963). The destruction 5*

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Bio-degradation and utilization of silica and quartz

Lauwers

Heinen

1974

Arch. Microbiol.

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“…The silicone is actually linked within SP and is not a contaminant from experimental manipulation since the isolation procedure involves several steps which would remove contaminating silicones: exhaustive extraction of SP with ether followed by dissolution of the ether-insoluble pigment in aqueous buffer and prolonged dialysis of the solution (143). The occurrence of organic silicon compounds in bacteria and higher plants has been reported previously (217,218). Pigments are found in the smoke condensates from unblended cigarettes of the four major tobacco types (88), and the distributions of molecular weight in the different condensates vary with the type.…”

Section: K Brown Pigmentsmentioning

confidence: 89%