Perito Brunella, Mastromei Giorgio
Department of Evolutionary Biology "Leo Pardi", University of Florence, Firenze, Italy.
Prog Mol Subcell Biol. 2011;52:113-39. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-21230-7_5.
Calcium carbonate precipitation is a widespread process, occurring in different bacterial taxonomic groups and in different environments, at a scale ranging from the microscopic one of cells to that of geological formations. It has relevant implications in natural processes and has great potentiality in numerous applications. For these reasons, bacterial precipitation has been investigated extensively both in natural environments and under laboratory conditions. Different mechanisms of bacterial involvement in precipitation have been proposed. There is an agreement that the phenomenon can be influenced by the environmental physicochemical conditions and it is correlated both to the metabolic activity and the cell surface structures of microorganisms. Nevertheless, the role played by bacteria in calcium mineralization remains a matter of debate. This chapter reviews the main mechanisms of the process with particular focus on what is known on molecular aspects, and discusses the significance of the precipitation event also from an evolutionary point of view.
碳酸钙沉淀是一个广泛存在的过程，发生于不同的细菌分类群和不同的环境中，规模从细胞的微观层面到地质构造层面不等。它在自然过程中具有重要意义，并且在众多应用中具有巨大潜力。基于这些原因，人们在自然环境和实验室条件下都对细菌沉淀进行了广泛研究。已经提出了细菌参与沉淀的不同机制。人们一致认为，这一现象会受到环境物理化学条件的影响，并且与微生物的代谢活性和细胞表面结构都相关。然而，细菌在钙矿化过程中所起的作用仍是一个有争议的问题。本章回顾了该过程的主要机制，特别关注分子层面的已知情况，并从进化的角度讨论了沉淀事件的意义。
