Carbon-Silicon Compound Found in Living Colony

Silicon is the second most abundant element in Earth's crust, but not a single carbon-silicon compound has ever been identified in a living organism ... until now. Christopher Knight, a research scientist at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign); Stephen Kinrade, chair of the chemistry department at Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Canada); and Ashley Gillson, an undergraduate student at Lakehead, observed a carbon-silicon compound in living freshwater diatoms. The scientists reported their findings in the Jan. 3 Advance Articles edition of Dalton Transactions, the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The observation of a carbon-silicon compound in a living system may open the door to understanding the molecular processes controlling biosilicification — the way in which plants and animals build structures using silicon.

"This is important since it promises to provide low-temperature, low-cost synthetic routes for the production of high-performance materials based on silicon nanostructures," Knight said. "Understanding biologically controlled assembly processes could allow us to design and build structures on a molecular scale."

A form of algae, diatoms are single-celled aquatic plants found by the billions in lakes and oceans. "Each cell possesses a beautiful, delicate and precisely engineered shell of pure silica," Knight said. "One of nature's enduring mysteries is how diatoms and other plants actually build these unique silicate structures." Diatoms must isolate silicon from water, transport it across the cell membrane and then deposit it as a solid, Knight said. "To do this in the laboratory requires high temperatures, high pressures or extreme pH levels, but diatoms somehow manage under normal physiological conditions."

	Diatoms are single-celled aquatic plants, with a shell of pure silica. (Source: Chemistry in Britain)

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