TY - JOUR
T1 - Absence of detectable arsenate in DNA from arsenate-grown GFAJ-1 cells
AU - Reaves, Marshall Louis
AU - Sinha, Sunita
AU - Rabinowitz, Joshua D.
AU - Kruglyak, Leonid
AU - Redfield, Rosemary J.
PY - 2012/7/27
Y1 - 2012/7/27
N2 - A strain of Halomonas bacteria, GFAJ-1, has been claimed to be able to use arsenate as a nutrient when phosphate is limiting and to specifically incorporate arsenic into its DNA in place of phosphorus. However, we have found that arsenate does not contribute to growth of GFAJ-1 when phosphate is limiting and that DNA purified from cells grown with limiting phosphate and abundant arsenate does not exhibit the spontaneous hydrolysis expected of arsenate ester bonds. Furthermore, mass spectrometry showed that this DNA contains only trace amounts of free arsenate and no detectable covalently bound arsenate.
AB - A strain of Halomonas bacteria, GFAJ-1, has been claimed to be able to use arsenate as a nutrient when phosphate is limiting and to specifically incorporate arsenic into its DNA in place of phosphorus. However, we have found that arsenate does not contribute to growth of GFAJ-1 when phosphate is limiting and that DNA purified from cells grown with limiting phosphate and abundant arsenate does not exhibit the spontaneous hydrolysis expected of arsenate ester bonds. Furthermore, mass spectrometry showed that this DNA contains only trace amounts of free arsenate and no detectable covalently bound arsenate.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.1219861
DO - 10.1126/science.1219861
M3 - Article
C2 - 22773140
AN - SCOPUS:84864346138
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 337
SP - 470
EP - 473
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6093
ER -