The latest paper shows that the “arsenic monster” GFAJ-1 goes to a huge amount of effort, “even more than other life”, to avoid arsenate, says Wolfgang Nitschke from the Mediterranean Institute of Microbiology in Marseilles, France, who co-authored a commentary questioning the conclusion that GFAJ-1 could replace phosphate with arsenate. “This shows clearly that life doesn’t like arsenate in cytoplasm,” he says.

Felisa Wolfe-Simon, lead author on the original Science paper and now at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, says that the new paper “represents the kind of careful study that really helps the community”. However, she points out that this work “doesn’t necessarily rule out an entirely novel mechanism” for arsenate getting into cells. “There’s still a lot of interesting open questions,” she says.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on October 3, 2012.

3 Comments

1. 1. bbrout 11:38 AM 10/4/12

   It's easy. Phosphorus tastes so much better than Arsenic. Ever tasted Arsenic? Terrible stuff.

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2. 2. dernickvw in reply to bbrout 02:58 PM 10/4/12

   LOL!

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3. 3. jpdickey 08:36 AM 10/7/12

   This study shows that, if given a choice, the bacterium will strongly prefer phosphate over arsenate. But what if it is not given the choice? How does it rebut the possibility that some bacteria could use arsenic in place of phosphorus when there is not enough phosphorus to meet needs? Bacteria that could thrive using some substantial amount of arsenic might not be as big news as bacteria that could get by without any. But it still should be of scientific interest.

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