Absence of detectable arsenate in DNA from arsenate-grown GFAJ-1 cells. Author Marshall Reaves, Sunita Sinha, Joshua Rabinowitz, Leonid Kruglyak, Rosemary Redfield Publication Year 2012 Type Journal Article Abstract A strain of Halomonas bacteria, GFAJ-1, has been claimed to be able to use arsenate as a nutrient when phosphate is limiting and to specifically incorporate arsenic into its DNA in place of phosphorus. However, we have found that arsenate does not contribute to growth of GFAJ-1 when phosphate is limiting and that DNA purified from cells grown with limiting phosphate and abundant arsenate does not exhibit the spontaneous hydrolysis expected of arsenate ester bonds. Furthermore, mass spectrometry showed that this DNA contains only trace amounts of free arsenate and no detectable covalently bound arsenate. Keywords Phosphates, DNA, Bacterial, Culture Media, Mass Spectrometry, Chromatography, Liquid, Nucleotides, Hydrolysis, Phosphorus, Arsenates, Arsenic, Centrifugation, Density Gradient, Halomonadaceae Journal Science Volume 337 Issue 6093 Pages 470-3 Date Published 07/2012 Alternate Journal Science Google ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML