Publication Date:
2010-12-04
Description:
Life is mostly composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus. Although these six elements make up nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids and thus the bulk of living matter, it is theoretically possible that some other elements in the periodic table could serve the same functions. Here, we describe a bacterium, strain GFAJ-1 of the Halomonadaceae, isolated from Mono Lake, California, that is able to substitute arsenic for phosphorus to sustain its growth. Our data show evidence for arsenate in macromolecules that normally contain phosphate, most notably nucleic acids and proteins. Exchange of one of the major bio-elements may have profound evolutionary and geochemical importance.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wolfe-Simon, Felisa -- Switzer Blum, Jodi -- Kulp, Thomas R -- Gordon, Gwyneth W -- Hoeft, Shelley E -- Pett-Ridge, Jennifer -- Stolz, John F -- Webb, Samuel M -- Weber, Peter K -- Davies, Paul C W -- Anbar, Ariel D -- Oremland, Ronald S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Jun 3;332(6034):1163-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1197258. Epub 2010 Dec 2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉NASA Astrobiology Institute, USA. felisawolfesimon@gmail.com〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21127214" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Arsenates/analysis/*metabolism
;
Arsenic/analysis/chemistry/*metabolism
;
Bacterial Proteins/analysis/metabolism
;
California
;
Culture Media
;
DNA, Bacterial/*chemistry/metabolism
;
Geologic Sediments/microbiology
;
Halomonadaceae/cytology/*growth & development/isolation &
;
purification/*metabolism
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Phosphates/analysis/*metabolism
;
Phosphorus/analysis/chemistry/*metabolism
;
Spectrometry, Mass, Secondary Ion
;
Vacuoles/ultrastructure
;
Water Microbiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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