Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", via E. Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy.
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, IPCF-CNR Istituto per i Processi Chimico Fisici, via E. Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy.
Photochem Photobiol Sci. 2022 Jan;21(1):101-111. doi: 10.1007/s43630-021-00116-9. Epub 2021 Nov 8.
Photosynthetic purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNB) have been widely utilized as model organisms to study bacterial photosynthesis. More recently, the remarkable resistance of these microorganisms to several metals ions called particular interest. As a result, several research efforts were directed toward clarifying the interactions of metal ions with PNB. The mechanisms of metal ions active uptake and bioabsorption have been studied in detail, unveiling that PNB enable harvesting and removing various toxic ions, thus fostering applications in environmental remediation. Herein, we present the most important achievements in the understanding of intact cell-metal ions interactions and the approaches utilized to study such processes. Following, the application of PNB-metal ions interactions toward metal removal from contaminated environments is presented. Finally, the possible coupling of PNB with abiotic electrodes to obtain biohybrid electrochemical systems is proposed as a sustainable pathway to tune and enhance metal removal and monitoring.
光合紫色无硫细菌（PNB）已被广泛用作研究细菌光合作用的模式生物。最近，这些微生物对几种金属离子的显著抵抗力引起了特别关注。因此，人们进行了多项研究来阐明金属离子与 PNB 的相互作用。已经详细研究了金属离子主动摄取和生物吸收的机制，揭示了 PNB 能够收集和去除各种有毒离子，从而促进了在环境修复中的应用。在此，我们介绍了在理解完整细胞-金属离子相互作用方面的最重要成就，以及用于研究这些过程的方法。接下来，介绍了 PNB-金属离子相互作用在从污染环境中去除金属方面的应用。最后，提出了将 PNB 与非生物电极结合以获得生物混合电化学系统的可能性，作为一种可持续的途径来调节和增强金属去除和监测。
