Development of a biological recovery and concentration technology aimed at sustainable use of rare metals

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K19042
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 31:Nuclear engineering, earth resources engineering, energy engineering, and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Chien Mei-Fang 東北大学, 環境科学研究科, 助教 (20533186)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-06-29 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: レアメタル / 生物濃縮 / モリブデン / 微生物工学 / 酵母

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study aimed to develop biological recovery techniques to rare metal toward a sustainable using of rare metals. The achievements of this study are as follows: 1, Organic mercury degrading enzyme MerB3 in a mercury resistant bacterium MB1 showed the potential to be a biological antidote. 2, mercury resistant bacterium MB24 contains both mercury and arsenic resistance operons as a special structure. The above results were published in English journals Journal of Environmental Biotechnology and Microorganisms, respectively. 3, the molybdenum adsorbing yeast was constructed by expressing molybdenum binding protein on the cell surface of yeast cells. Besides, the efficiency of adsorption got increasing through immobilizing the yeast cells. The above results have been presented at Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry and International Biometallurgy Symposium 2019.

Free Research Field

環境生物工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の遂行により、金属に応答を示す微生物の機能を探索・利用することで、その金属を特異的に回収・濃縮する生物学的な金属回収技術の基盤が確立できた。モリブデンを最初のターゲットとして試みたが、本研究により構築した技術に基づき、金属吸着効率の向上、他の金属吸着への応用、微生物利用システムのデザインなど、さらなる発展のシーズになり、これらの研究成果の蓄積による生物学的金属濃縮・回収の実現が期待できる。