from Wikipedia 7/14/2022

Cupriavidus metallidurans is a non-spore-forming, Gram-negative bacterium which is adapted to survive several forms of heavy metal stress.

As a model and industrial system

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• It is an ideal subject to study heavy metal disturbance of cellular processes. This bacterium shows a unique combination of advantages not present in this form in other bacteria.
• Its genome (strain CH34) has been fully sequenced (preliminary, annotated sequence data were obtained from the DOE Joint Genome Institute)
• It is not pathogenic, therefore, models of the cell can also be tested in artificial environments similar to its natural habitats.
• It is related to the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum.[6]
• It is of ecological importance since related bacteria are predominant in mesophilic heavy metal-contaminated environments.[2][7]
• It is of industrial importance and used for heavy metal remediation and sensing.[4]
• It is an aerobic chemolithoautotroph, facultatively able to grow in a mineral salts medium in the presence of H2, O2, and CO2 without an organic carbon source.[8] The energy-providing subsystem of the cell under these conditions is composed only of the hydrogenase, the respiratory chain, and the F1F0-ATPase. This keeps this subsystem simple and clearly separated from the anabolic subsystems that starts with the Calvin cycle for CO2-fixation.
• It is able to degrade xenobiotics even in the presence of high heavy metal concentrations.[9]
• Finally, strain CH34 is adapted to the outlined harsh conditions by a multitude of heavy-metal resistance systems that are encoded by the two indigenous megaplasmids pMOL28 and pMOL30 on the bacterial chromosome(s).[3][4][10]

Ecology

C. metallidurans plays a vital role, together with Delftia acidovorans, in the formation of gold nuggets. It precipitates metallic gold from a solution of gold(III) chloride, a compound highly toxic to most other microorganisms.[11][12][13]

References

1. Vandamme, P.; T. Coeyne (June 18, 2004). “Taxonomy of the genus Cupriavidus: a tale of lost and found”. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 54 (Pt 6): 2285–2289. doi:10.1099/ijs.0.63247-0. PMID 15545472.
2. Goris, J.; et al. (2001). “Classification of metal-resistant bacteria from industrial biotopes as Ralstonia campinensis sp. nov., Ralstonia metallidurans sp. nov. and Ralstonia basilensis Steinle et al. 1998 emend”. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 51 (Pt 5): 1773–1782. doi:10.1099/00207713-51-5-1773. PMID 11594608.
3. Nies, DH (1999). “Microbial heavy metal resistance”. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 51 (6): 730–750. doi:10.1007/s002530051457. PMID 10422221. S2CID 6675586.
4. Nies, DH (2000). “Heavy metal resistant bacteria as extremophiles: molecular physiology and biotechnological use of Ralstonia spec. CH34”. Extremophiles. 4 (2): 77–82. doi:10.1007/s007920050140. PMID 10805561. S2CID 11156112.
5. Ryan, Michael P.; Adley, Catherine C. (2011-09-01). “Specific PCR to identify the heavy-metal-resistant bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans”. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology. 38 (9): 1613–1615. doi:10.1007/s10295-011-1011-y. ISSN 1476-5535. PMID 21720772. S2CID 33552248.
6. Salanoubat M.; et al. (2002). “Genome sequence of the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum”. Nature. 415 (6871): 497–502. doi:10.1038/415497a. PMID 11823852.
7. Diels, L.; Q. Dong; D. van der Lelie; W. Baeyens; M. Mergeay (1995). “The czc operon of Alcaligenes eutrophus CH34: from resistance mechanism to the removal of heavy metals”. Journal of Industrial Microbiology. 14 (2): 142–153. doi:10.1007/BF01569896. PMID 7766206. S2CID 29272445.
8. Mergeay, M.; D. Nies; H.G. Schlegel; J. Gerits; P. Charles; F. van Gijsegem (1985). “Alcaligenes eutrophus CH34 is a facultative chemolithotroph with plasmid-bound resistance to heavy metals”. Journal of Bacteriology. 162 (1): 328–334. doi:10.1128/JB.162.1.328-334.1985. PMC 218993. PMID 3884593.
9. Springael, D.; L. Diels; L. Hooyberghs; S. Kreps; M. Mergeay (1993). “Construction and characterization of heavy metal resistant haloaromatic-degrading Alcaligenes eutrophus strains”. Appl Environ Microbiol. 59 (1): 334–339. doi:10.1128/AEM.59.1.334-339.1993. PMC 202101. PMID 8439161.
10. Monchy, S.; M.A. Benotmane; P. Janssen; T. Vallaeys; S. Taghavi; D. van der Lelie; M. Mergeay (October 2007). “Plasmids pMOL28 and pMOL30 of Cupriavidus metallidurans are specialized in the maximal viable response to heavy metals”. Journal of Bacteriology. 189 (20): 7417–7425. doi:10.1128/JB.00375-07. PMC 2168447. PMID 17675385.
11. Reith, Frank; Stephen L. Rogers; D. C. McPhail; Daryl Webb (July 14, 2006). “Biomineralization of Gold: Biofilms on Bacterioform Gold”. Science. 313 (5784): 233–236. Bibcode:2006Sci…313..233R. doi:10.1126/science.1125878. hdl:1885/28682. PMID 16840703. S2CID 32848104.
12. Superman-Strength Bacteria Produce 24-Karat Gold
13. The bacteria that turns toxic chemicals into pure gold

External links

Microbes Leave Gold on Corpses, May Complicate Forensics By Charles Q. Choi published February 25, 2010 (Article at Live Science)

Type strain of Cupriavidus metallidurans at BacDive – the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase