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I am making a planet and my crust is rich in gallium and its heavy counterpart, indium from a cosmic fluke (gallium and indium are both at a concentration of about 0.01% in the crust). However, most gallium and indium compounds range from toxic to possibly carcinogenic for almost all life on Earth, so I need a way to neutralize the stuff.

My idea was to have a bacterium in a symbiotic relation with almost every organism that used enzymes to separate gallium and indium from the minerals they naturally occur in and bind the ions to tin to create a version of galinstan, which is almost totally non-toxic and safe. From there, the stuff would be stored in specialized vacuoles and excreted.

However, galinstan is totally synthetic from my understanding so could this work? If so, is it practical? If not, are there any other alternative ways to deal with the gallium and indium in my crust?

FYI, I just want to know how to deal with the elements. I know that some adaptation would occur obviously in the life forms but I want to know some ways it could happen.

Part two is here.

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    $\begingroup$ If your world doesn't have humans or other imported terrestrial organisms on it, why bother? Anything that evolved there would have evolved to be tolerant of it. They might even make use of the stuff rather than having to get rid of it. As to imported terrestrial organisms, make that the problem of the humans who bring them. $\endgroup$
    – Monty Wild ♦
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 3:57
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    $\begingroup$ @MontyWild Yeah, I know, but I just want some ways to deal with it. Also, the world is very similar to Earth. $\endgroup$
    – Neil Iyer
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 4:12
  • $\begingroup$ Part 2 can be found here. $\endgroup$
    – Neil Iyer
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 15:21
  • $\begingroup$ VTC: 1. You have three distinct questions in here: "could this work? If so, is it practical? If not, are there any other alternative ways to deal with the gallium and indium in my crust?" 2. The title is of no help to people browsing this site, and you have to match the title to the ask (one of them). 3. Linking to other posts is fine but only to answer superficial questions; you can't force respondents to follow a link to understand your main ask. But, good scenario description. Please make this more friendly to the site. Unfortunately, have to close. $\endgroup$
    – Vogon Poet
    Commented Sep 16, 2023 at 17:43

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Anything that evolved on this world would not need to evolve a relationship with a special symbiotic bacterium in order to deal with more common Gallium or Indium. Any organism that was unable to tolerate exposure to these elements before the evolution of the symbiotic relationship would be selected against in favour of organisms that were tolerant to these elements.

It is not logical to presuppose that elements common to a biome would need to be dealt with specially by organisms that evolved there. So, far from needing to eliminate these elements, it is more reasonable to expect that these organisms would have evolved to incorporate these elements in their structure.

If the OP particularly wants these organisms to have to cope with the current levels of these elements, then these elements must not have always been common. If an asteroid with high levels of these elements was to strike this world, perhaps breaking up in the atmosphere so as to spread around as much as possible, then organisms that had not evolved in this new environment would be forced to deal with it.

In such a case, it would be reasonable if a bacterium that conferred immunity to the ill effects of Gallium and Indium chanced to become a valuable symbiote.

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  • $\begingroup$ Ok, that makes a lot of sense. I guess I can make an asteroid rich in these two elements hit the planet and use the bacterium to let them cope. $\endgroup$
    – Neil Iyer
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 13:38
  • $\begingroup$ Also note that neither indium nor gallium are particularly well absorbed, at least by humans. Soluble compounds of both can be toxic when injected, so...um, don't do that. Occupational exposure to oxide dusts can cause problems, so...wear your PPE. Realistic environmental levels are probably not going to be a problem. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher James Huff
    Commented Sep 14, 2023 at 0:10
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As others have said any gallium and indium rich worlds that developed life would develop means of dealing with them. But humanity does not know in detail how this would happen because the possibilities within chemistry are so vast that to a good approximation we are entirely ignorant of them.

So the truthful answer to your question is that we don't know what the biochemical possibilities might be for indium and gallium on another world after billions of years of evolution. The complexity of the question is best illustrated by looking at what little we know of our own biochemistry:

http://biochemical-pathways.com/#/map/1

have a look around using the cursor bottom right. What happens if this is all rewritten?

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    $\begingroup$ That pathway link was very interesting. I do wonder what would happen if a few indium or gallium enzymes or pathways were sprinkled in. $\endgroup$
    – Neil Iyer
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 13:29
  • $\begingroup$ :o) yes it would be fascinating. If we had a new Earth with excess of these elements and 4.5 billion years spare we might find out, but sadly we don't. $\endgroup$
    – Slarty
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 7:49
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You need a world with lots of gallium and indium, but do you need these elements to be problems also?

The earth has lots of nasty heavy metals. But lots of it is physically tied up in rocks. Some is chemically tied up in stable compounds. And a lot is simply too deep below the surface to affect living things.

Mining could be dangerous if the world has lots of gallium, life could still exist on the surface. Minerals may also be unevenly distributed, giving you a combination of nice poison-free places, as well as no-go lands.

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The way a biological system could neutralise toxic metallic ions would be to chelate them. An example of a chelated complex is the haemoglobin. The bacterium could produce a protein that would bind with indium and gallium ions, making them inert, then the complex would be excreted.

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