Plants do more than photosynthesis – some of them make gold. In a boreal forest in northern Finland, scientists have found tiny gold particles inside the norway spruce needles.
Plants like Norway Spruce welcome tiny microbial partners who modify chemistry inside their leaves and needles in a way that science begins to understand.
For the first time, scientists have linked bacteria living inside Norway spinet needles to the formation of gold nanoparticles.
“Our results suggest that bacteria and other microbes living inside plants can influence the accumulation of gold in trees,” said postdoctoral researcher Kaisa Lehosmaa of the University of Oulu, Finland.
The discovery opens a path to greener exploration of gold, and similar processes focused on microbes in foams could help withdraw metals from the waters impacted by mining.
Do microbes in trees make gold?
The main question is simple: do microbes live inside the spruce needles connected to the presence of gold nanoparticles? If so, what does this mean for plants, microbes and the way we are looking for minerals?
Geologists have long since known that mineral deposits lose ions while oxidized rocks and bacteria get to work.
These ions move in surface floors, where plants take water and nutrients – the metals included. With sensitive instruments, you can even detect these metals in plants or snow.
Researchers from the University of Oulu and the Geological Survey of Finland focused on trees above a golden deposit known in Finnish Lapland, during a satellite mineral deposit of the Kittilä gold mine.
This adjustment increases the chances that tiny amounts of gold move through the water of the soil in the roots and to the needles.
“Such biogeochemical methods have already been used in mineral exploration, but this new research improves our understanding of what is really going on in the process,” explains research teacher Maarit Middleton of the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK).
Tree needles and gold particles
The team collected 138 needle samples of 23 norway spruce and divided them into two test tracks.
A track looked for gold nanoparticles using an electron microscopy for scanning of field emission associated with an energy ray spectroscopy.
A brilliant and dense point that corresponds to the Gold X -ray signal counts as a confirmed particle. The other track sequered a standard marker gene (16s RNA) to map bacteria living inside the needles.
In four trees, gold nanoparticles appeared inside the needles. When gold appeared, particles were often seated next to clusters of bacterial cells encrusted in biofilm – the protective and sticky covering that bacteria build to live in tight communities.
Microbial digital imprints
The DNA sequencing of biofilms pointed at specific bacterial groups linked to needles containing gold. Taxons such as P3OB-42, CutibacteriumAnd Corynebacterium were more common in the needles with confirmed gold.
“This suggests that these specific bacteria associated with spruce can help transform soluble gold into solid particles inside needles,” explains Dr. Lehosmaa. “This insight is useful because the screening of these bacteria in plant leaves can facilitate the exploration of gold.”
How trees are golden gold
Gold in the soil can move in a soluble ion form with water. Inside a needle, microenvironments created by biofilms can change local chemistry – speed change conditions so that dissolved gold becomes less soluble and begins to form tiny particles.
Plants often isolate metals so that essential processes work smoothly. The microbes benefit from the shelter of biofilms and can enter trace elements along the way.
“Our recent study provides preliminary evidence of how gold moves in plant shoots and how golden nanoparticles can form inside the needles,” said Dr. Lehosmaa.
“In the soil, gold is present in a soluble liquid form. Breed by water, gold moves in spruce needles. The microbes of the tree can then precipitate this soluble gold in solid and nanose particles. ”
Decipher the models
Not all trees contained golden nanoparticles, and this fact is perfectly logical. The trees use different waterways and their microbiomas can vary even from one branch to another.
The needles with more gold tended to accommodate fewer types of bacteria, but the global communities were not divided into two distinct groups. Certain “indicators” groups were more frequent in the gold environment.
The touring of gold points, bacterial cells and biofilms suggests a microbial involvement, but it is not a live view of a single bacteria reducing gold in real time.
The exact cause and effect of this process will require targeted experiences that follow the transformation step by step.
Real world implications
Biogeochemical exploration already samples plants to find out what is below. The new torsion is the microbial angle inside the leaves and needles.
If specific microbes are correlated with gold particles, screening for these bacteria could refine plant -based surveys. This indicates fewer blind drilling holes, less disturbances and better chances of finding the right targets.
The approach does not replace geophysics or traditional geochemistry. He adds another line of evidence. In regions where access is tight or environmental issues are high, this additional signal could bear fruit.
The same biology that shapes metals inside the needles could help draw the water metals. Aquatic plants and their microbes live on the front lines of exposure to metals in rivers near the mines.
If biofilms and plant tissues push dissolved metals to form particles, this chemistry could be integrated into treatment systems.
“Metals can, for example, precipitate in the fabrics of the foam. The study of biomineralization also allows us to explore how bacteria and microbes living in aquatic foam could help eliminate water metals ”, Dr Lehosmaa describes another study in progress.
Gold Inside Trees – More necessary answers
Plants are Holobiontes – teams made of the host plus its microbes. These partners guide how nutrients and trace elements move, how stress is managed and, in cases like this, how minerals are formed inside the tissues.
In the arcures of Lapland, microbes seem to help lock tiny golden pieces in safe and solid form. This tiny record inside a needle indicates geology under the foot and the practical tools that we can use on the surface.
Direct temporal resolution tests will be essential. Display microbes taking soluble gold and the formation of nanoparticles under controlled conditions, and the case becomes stronger.
New studies will have to develop beyond spruce and test other plants on different deposits and types of rocks.
Scientists will follow the seasons, map the groundwater routes, then link microbial fingerprints to gold signals in a way that the field teams can use.
This is how science works – follow a clear path, from careful observation to a reliable method.
In this case, this clear path crosses a place that we have neglected for too long: small districts where vegetable cells and microbial biofilms establish the rules of chemistry.
The complete study was published in the journal Environmental microbiome.
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