Nano Center Research Update: Iron Oxidation

Iron is a critical nutrient for all life on earth but one that is prone to oxidation, or rust, that decays usable iron due to the presence of oxygen. In some biomes, like the Earth’s oceans, usable iron is relatively scarce and oxygen relatively common. This creates a heated competition between bacteria that oxidize naturally occurring iron to produce energy and the natural oxidation due to an oxygen rich environment. 


A team of researchers from the UMN’s Department of Soil, Climate, and Water and Harvard University’s Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology have put the tools at the Minnesota Nanocenter to work and gained new insight into the lives of these iron oxidizing bacteria. The researchers found that these bacteria are able to inhabit a greater range of environments than previously thought due to a previously unknown metabolite that allows them to slow the natural oxidation of iron, allowing them to preserve necessary nutrients in oxygen rich environments.