Understanding the biochemical functions underlying the ability of the bacterium C. metallidurans to colonize natural gold particles and nuggets has proven far from trivial. Indeed  appreciating how C. metallidurans solves the problem of living in environments that contain both Au and Cu is a pre-requisite to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying gold cycling in the environment.

In this groundbreaking study conducted over several years by the Nies group at the University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) in close collaboration with the Reith’s Microbes and Heavy Metal Group at the University of Adelaide, as well as collaborators now at Monash,  the ESRF, and other institutions a breakthrough has been made and has now published in the prestigious journal Applied and and Environmental Microbiology.