Cell walls transition metal binding

Chelants are not biocides on their own, but can boost the performance of many biocides so that lower doses are required in personal care and other liquid formulations. This is believed to be due to removal of calcium by chelants from bacterial cell walls, thus allowing the biocide to pass through the cell wall more efficiently [7]. Chelants can also act as antioxidants by binding transition metal ions and preventing oxidation reactions of metal ions with radicals and oxygen. 

There is a great deal of information available on the surface binding of transition metals to cell walls. Such cell walls possess many charged groups, such as peptidoglycan, which can contribute carboxylate groups, and teichoic acids, which provide anionic clusters due to the... 

Intracellular distribution of essential transition metals is mediated by specific metallochaperones and transporters localized in endomembranes. In other words, the major processes involved in hyperaccumulation of trace metals from the contaminated medium to the shoots by hyperaccumulators as proposed by Yang et al. (2005) include bioactivation of metals in the rhizosphere through root-microbial interaction enhanced uptake by metal transporters in the plasma membranes detoxification of metals by distributing metals to the apoplasts such as binding to cell walls and chelation of metals in the cytoplasm with various ligands (such as PCs, metallothioneins, metal-binding proteins) and sequestration of metals into the vacuole by tonoplast-located transporters. 

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