NCBI PubMed ID:29734757 Publication DOI:10.3390/biom8020023 Journal NLM ID:101596414 Publisher: Basel, Switzerland: MDPI Correspondence: Sujan.Ghimiremorgan.edu; Pumtiwitt.McCarthymorgan.edu Institutions: Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Heavy metal pollution of water is a significant environmental and public health concern. Current biological strategies for heavy metal removal from water are performed using microbial biopolymers, including polysaccharides, that are already fully formed. This creates limitations in adapting polysaccharides to increase binding affinity for specific metals. We propose that altering the specificity of polysaccharide-producing enzymes could be beneficial to improving metal capture by modified polysaccharides. We assess binding of Cu2+ and Pb2+ metal cations to Neisseria meningitidis-type polysaccharides. All concentrations of metal cations tested were able to completely bind to colominic acid. This polymer is equivalent to the capsular polysaccharide of N. meningitidis serogroup B comprised of a homopolymer of negatively charged sialic acid. There was slightly less binding observed with N. meningitidis serogroup W, which contains repeating units of the neutral sugar galactose and sialic acid. Our work represents the first assessment of the metal-binding properties of these capsular polysaccharides. Future work will seek to optimize metal-binding with Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W polysaccharide.
Neisseria meningitidis, capsular polysaccharide, Bioremediation, heavy metals
Methods: binding of heavy metal cations to polysaccharide Biological activity: colominic acid completely bound Pb2+ and Cu2+ cations, but CPS serogroup W was less efficient, as some unbound Pb2+ was detected
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