Arsenic and Old Algae: Yellowstone Algae Breaks Down Toxicity
If you have ever been to Yellowstone National Park, you may have noticed that rotten-egg smell around the myriad hot springs and geysers. Well, that intoxicating aroma is just that, in toxicating. Ok, it’s not necessarily the aroma that is toxic, but some of the stuff in the hot springs are toxic, including arsenic.
Huh, hot springs have arsenic in them? Why is it possible for me to soak my lily-white butt in them?
Ok, not all hot springs are quite as acidic as some of the hot springs in Yellowstone’s Norris Geyser Basin. That is where researchers from Montana State University concentrated their surveys of a certain one-celled algae named Cyanidioschyzon that grew in mats on the top of the pools of hot water. Tim McDermott, a prof at MSU, noticed years ago that the mats that nearly took over small pools in the winter virtually disappeared by summer. And like any good scientist, he wanted to know why.
It seems that the algae — red algae — had a little trick up its sleeve. Cyanidioschyzon can chemically change the arsenic that is found in these hot springs, and the more acidic the water, the more arsenic is there for the red algae to “eat.”
The cyanidioschyzon “oxidizes, reduces and converts arsenic to several forms that are less toxic than the original.” This finding has some rather serious implications. It may point out new ways for life to exist in extreme conditions, even those on other planets or moons.
“It gives us insight into how life adapts to extreme environments,” Rosen added. “If life can grow at high temperatures and high concentrations of heavy metals like arsenic, life might be able to evolve on other planets or moons such as Titan or Enceladus.”
McDermott said the scientists conducted basic research that may have implications someday for acid mine drainage and acid rock drainage remediation efforts.
“Any time you learn anything about eukaryotic algae and their potential application for bioremediation, that’s always good,” he said.–Terra Daily (SPX)
Arsenic is one of the more toxic by-products of coal-mining, so if there is some way that a teensy weensy little microbe can break down toxic forms of arsenic into less harmful variants, then this could be a very important discovery in terms of bioremediation of toxic sites and waste ponds.
algae, arsenic, toxic, Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone, hot springs, geysers, mining, cyanidioschyzon, Montana State, Norris Geyser Basin
