Research group at Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) developed a new cesium-transporting bacterial pump that could be beneficial in radioactivity decontamination efforts. The NITech-led team, in collaboration with colleagues at The University of Tokyo, successfully induced a molecular pump found in bacteria to transport cesium. The process simply requires the presence of light to make it function. In this study, the team worked on a rhodopsins (light-activated molecules found in the human eye as well as in bacteria) from a marine bacterium, which normally pumps sodium, as well as lithium, across the cell membrane. Earlier studies had identified the particular building blocks within the middle of this pump that are vital for it to transport only those ions it is meant to transport. Subsequent works applied this information to induce the pumping of potassium instead of sodium. Further progress along this line of study has now led to production of a cesium pump. This is a major breakthrough--no light-driven cesium pumps have been found in nature. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/niot-nbp021616.php Paper: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b02385
