In northern Finland, very close to a gold deposit, a Finnish team found tiny gold nanoparticles in the needles of the Norway spruce (Picea abies). The finding cannot be explained by external dust: the metal appears embedded in living tissue, associated with bacterial biofilms.
The biofilm matrix is a complex extracellular substance mainly produced by microorganisms that serves as a support for a microbial community. This matrix protects microorganisms from their environment, facilitates adhesion, provides rigidity, and acts as a barrier against external agents such as disinfectants and antibiotics.
The research, published in Environmental Microbiome, combined scanning electron microscopy with EDS spectroscopy to locate gold and 16S rRNA sequencing to profile the…more
Source www.theweather.com
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