Chapter 5
Molecular Basis of Bacterial Calcium
Carbonate Precipitation
Brunella Perito and Giorgio Mastromei
Contents
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.2 General Features of Bacterial Calcium Carbonate Mineralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.1 Calcium Carbonate Mineralization Terms and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.2 General Features of Bacterial CaCO 3 Mineralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.2.3 Bacterial CC Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.3 Bacterial Metabolism and Precipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3.1 Role of Bacterial Metabolism on Calcium Carbonate Precipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3.2 Role of Calcium Carbonate Precipitation in Bacterial Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.4 Cell Surface Structures and Precipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Abstract 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
G. Mastromei (*)
Department of Evolutionary Biology “Leo Pardi”, University of Florence, Via Romana 17, 50125
Firenze, Italy
e-mail: giorgio.mastromei@unifi.it
W.E.G. M€ uller (ed.), Molecular Biomineralization, Progress in Molecular
and Subcellular Biology 52, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-21230-7_5,
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
113
Molecular Basis of Bacterial Calcium
Carbonate Precipitation
Brunella Perito and Giorgio Mastromei
Contents
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.2 General Features of Bacterial Calcium Carbonate Mineralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.1 Calcium Carbonate Mineralization Terms and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.2 General Features of Bacterial CaCO 3 Mineralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.2.3 Bacterial CC Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.3 Bacterial Metabolism and Precipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3.1 Role of Bacterial Metabolism on Calcium Carbonate Precipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3.2 Role of Calcium Carbonate Precipitation in Bacterial Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.4 Cell Surface Structures and Precipitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Abstract 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
G. Mastromei (*)
Department of Evolutionary Biology “Leo Pardi”, University of Florence, Via Romana 17, 50125
Firenze, Italy
e-mail: giorgio.mastromei@unifi.it
W.E.G. M€ uller (ed.), Molecular Biomineralization, Progress in Molecular
and Subcellular Biology 52, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-21230-7_5,
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
113