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Why is citric acid such a fertile ground for bacteria/fungus?
Every time I make a citrate salt, fungus attacks it and grows on it like crazy.
I even made copper citrate solution, guess what, copper ions weren't toxic to these organisms at all. In my 5L jar filled with citric acid solution, a
huge blob of mold formed there, sitting on the blue solution.
I hoped to clean the jar out from copper carbonate deposit now I have a huge organic rotting mess dried all over the jar...
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Unspar
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That doesn't surprise me too much. I work in a Yeast lab and you'd be surprised what they will grow on in terms of nitrogen/carbon sources. All
they really need is something that will oxidize and looks vaguely biological.
As far as citric acid goes this bit of wikipedia should explain it. Essentially, it's used in the citric acid cycle as the citrate ion. It's a pretty direct shot from
there to ATP.
What's surprising to me is the Cu resistance at that high concentrations. Generally odd metal ions make cells quite unhappy. It's not known quite
why, but they can interfere with essential ions in enzymes, catalyze unwanted reactions in cells and a whole host of stuff like that.
I suppose not everything would be knocked out by copper. Who knows, maybe that particular strain used to live on a pile of mine tailings!
If you want to keep it safe I'd try to dry it out as best you can or use a solvent other than water.
Luck!
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Squiggly
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Quote: Originally posted by Unspar  | Generally odd metal ions make cells quite unhappy. It's not known quite why, but they can interfere with essential ions in enzymes, catalyze
unwanted reactions in cells and a whole host of stuff like that.
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Copper can interfere with zinc finger domains, and as you have suggested can also lead to the formation of unwanted organometallic catalysts in
vivo.
One of many references:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1505681
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BrungoJames
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| Quote: Originally posted by Unspar | That doesn't surprise me too much. I work in a Yeast lab and you'd be surprised what they will grow on in terms of nitrogen/carbon sources. All
they really need is something that will oxidize and looks vaguely biological.
As far as citric acid goes this bit of wikipedia should explain it. Essentially, it's used in the citric acid cycle as the citrate ion. It's a pretty direct shot from
there to ATP.
What's surprising to me is the Cu resistance at that high concentrations. Generally odd metal ions make cells quite unhappy. It's not known quite
why, but they can interfere with essential ions in enzymes, catalyze unwanted reactions in cells and a whole host of stuff like that.
I suppose not everything would be knocked out by copper. Who knows, maybe that particular strain used to live on a pile of mine tailings!
If you want to keep it safe I'd try to dry it out as best you can or use a solvent other than water.
Luck!
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Can you tell why other solvent can keep the chemical safe rather than water?Why water is not safe?Do reply as I am anxious to know about it.
[Edited on 19-9-2013 by BrungoJames]
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