Silica as biologically transmutated source for bacterial growth similar to carbon 

Under specific conditions cells are capable of forming elements which did not exist before in the environment and this is referred as biological transmutation. Fungi and bacteria can solubilize insoluble silicates to support growth as case with the biological weathering of rocks. In the present study bacteria capable of silica solubilisation were isolated from soil, river water, pond sediment and talc mineral. These isolates were screened in vitro in medium containing magnesium trisilicate (0.25%) for zone of solubilization. Pseudomonas stutzeri was capable of growth in mineral media supplemented with and without glucose (0.1% level) and uses silicon-based autotrophy as a source of energy to support CO2 fixation. Experiments conducted eliminating the head space CO2 in mineral medium (with silica) supplemented with and without glucose showed that the Pseudomonas stutzeri could grow under silica and mineral nutrients alone and produce 84.1% biomass in 7 d. SEM-EDAX of the bacterial culture revealed the presence of carbon in the cells grown exclusively on silica suggestive of bacterial transmutation of silica to carbon. This may be due to that, silicon though a bigger atom making longer and weaker bonds has four bonding electrons available like carbon. Similar to carbon, silicon also has four open slots in its outer electron shell which may also from a basis for complex biological life. Introduction At the end of the 18th century Antoine Lavoisier demonstrated that chemical elements cannot be created nor destroyed. He performed a number of chemical experiments that showed that various elements can combine with each other, but without any change in their elemental compositions [1]. In 1891 Julius Sheiner wrote about the possibility of extraterrestrial life built with Silicon. Silica is the second most abundant element found on earth. Although silicon itself (Si) is a glassy insoluble solid, the various oxides (primarily SiO2) are somewhat soluble in water. Indeed, all natural water supplies contain some dissolved “silica”. Many supplies also contain suspended or colloidal silica. Silica, like its sister element carbon, has four covalent bonding sites and can, therefore, form a very large number of potential molecules. Silica chemistry is quite complex, second only to the chemistry of carbon compounds. Because the silica nucleus is larger than the carbon nucleus, silica does not easily form double or triple bonds, and silica does not readily form chains more than 6 silica atoms long. Unless 100% efficient thermodynamic systems operate, (something impossible in Universe), it would be extremely hard the passage of silica crystals through soft membranes. Fungi and bacteria can solubilize insoluble silicates as case with the biological weathering of rocks. Silicon compounds also increase bacterial growth and have been implicated in aggravating tubercular infections of the lung in patients suffering from silicosis [2]. Hence, the present work was aimed to study the silica as biologically transmutated source for bacterial growth similar to carbon. Objective Silica as biologically transmutated carbon source for bacteria capable of silica solubilization. Silica as biologically transmutated source for bacterial growth similar to carbon DOI: 10.19185/matters.2015115 Matters Archive (ISSN: 2297-9247) | 2 b