In-depth profiling of calcite precipitation by environmental bacteria reveals fundamental mechanistic differences with relevance to application.

This study surveyed environmental bacteria for their ability to precipitate calcium carbonate minerals and investigated both the mechanisms and the resulting crystals. We show that while urease activity leads to the fastest precipitation, it is by no means essential. Importantly, the same quantities of calcium carbonate are produced by non-ureolytic bacteria, and the resulting crystals appear to have larger volumes and more organic components, which is likely beneficial in specific applications. Testing both precipitation mechanisms in a self-healing concrete application showed that non-ureolytic bacteria delivered more robust results. We here performed a systematic study into the fundamental differences in biomineralization between environmental bacteria and provide important information for the design of bacteria-based engineering solutions. PMID: 31980427 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research