%0 Journal Article
%T Reduction of Selenite to Red Elemental Selenium by Rhodopseudomonas palustris Strain N
%A Baozhen Li
%A Na Liu
%A Yongquan Li
%A Weixin Jing
%A Jinhua Fan
%A Dan Li
%A Longyan Zhang
%A Xiaofeng Zhang
%A Zhaoming Zhang
%A Lan Wang
%J PLOS ONE
%D 2014
%I Public Library of Science (PLoS)
%R 10.1371/journal.pone.0095955
%X The trace metal selenium is in demand for health supplements to human and animal nutrition. We studied the reduction of selenite (SeO3£¿2) to red elemental selenium by Rhodopseudomonas palustris strain N. This strain was cultured in a medium containing SeO3£¿2 and the particles obtained from cultures were analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive microanalysis (EDX) and X ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Our results showed the strain N could reduce SeO3£¿2 to red elemental selenium. The diameters of particles were 80¨C200 nm. The bacteria exhibited significant tolerance to SeO3£¿2 up to 8.0 m mol/L concentration with an EC50 value of 2.4 m mol/L. After 9 d of cultivation, the presence of SeO32£¿ up to 1.0 m mol/L resulted in 99.9% reduction of selenite, whereas 82.0% (p<0.05), 31.7% (p<0.05) and 2.4% (p<0.05) reduction of SeO3£¿2 was observed at 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 m mol/L SeO32£¿ concentrations, respectively. This study indicated that red elemental selenium was synthesized by green technology using Rhodopseudomonas palustris strain N. This strain also indicated a high tolerance to SeO3£¿2. The finding of this work will contribute to the application of selenium to human health.
%U http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0095955