Newberyite mineral
Newberyite is the hydrated magnesium hydrogen-phosphate mineral species Mg(PO3OH)(H2O)3. The September 2026 IMA list gives grandfathered status and original-description year 1879, not a new-mineral approval identifier. It is distinct from elemental phosphorus or magnesium, struvite, other phosphate mineral species and mixed culture precipitates. Constituent criticality is not inherited. The culture evidence below is a bounded assignment of a minor recovered phase, not a purified product or established direct metabolic pathway.
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (1)
Newberyite-assigned minor phase in static bacterial cultures
biomineralization
Microbial
Powder diffraction of dried products from Myxococcus coralloides D cultures was interpreted as newberyite occurring with dominant struvite under selected static liquid-medium conditions. The accepted observation is the recovered source-assigned phase associated with a culture; direct microbial causality and product yield remain unresolved.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
The thesis used a live laboratory culture historically named Myxococcus coralloides D, described as a dispersed-growth derivative obtained by successive liquid passage; the Methods also calls it Corallococcus coralloides. No deposited stock or sequence accession is supplied for D, so no exact modern strain identifier is inferred. Static cultures were aerobic at 28 degrees C. CT medium used 1% Bacto-Casitone and a 10 mM potassium-phosphate buffer. Table 8 associates the target phase with CT-2 (initial pH 6.8; nominal Mg 4.06 mM from MgSO4.7H2O), CT-13 (10 mM phosphate/10 mM Mg), and CT-15 (10 mM phosphate/20 mM Mg); CT-13/15 derive from the pH 6.5 base recipe. Methods permits 3 mL tube cultures inoculated with 0.1 mL of a 50-hour culture or 100 mL in 250 mL flasks inoculated with 3.3 mL; the target-phase table does not map each diffractogram to vessel size. Static products were collected after 20-22 days by decanting, repeated distilled-water washing and room-temperature drying. The dried mixed products were ground and examined by powder XRD using reference-pattern comparison. No boiling agar extraction applies to these liquid-culture target observations.
The thesis used a live laboratory culture historically named Myxococcus coralloides D, described as a dispersed-growth derivative obtained by successive liquid passage; the Methods also calls it Corallococcus coralloides. No deposited stock or sequence accession is supplied for D, so no exact modern strain identifier is inferred. Static cultures were aerobic at 28 degrees C. CT medium used 1% Bacto-Casitone and a 10 mM potassium-phosphate buffer. Table 8 associates the target phase with CT-2 (initial pH 6.8; nominal Mg 4.06 mM from MgSO4.7H2O), CT-13 (10 mM phosphate/10 mM Mg), and CT-15 (10 mM phosphate/20 mM Mg); CT-13/15 derive from the pH 6.5 base recipe. Methods permits 3 mL tube cultures inoculated with 0.1 mL of a 50-hour culture or 100 mL in 250 mL flasks inoculated with 3.3 mL; the target-phase table does not map each diffractogram to vessel size. Static products were collected after 20-22 days by decanting, repeated distilled-water washing and room-temperature drying. The dried mixed products were ground and examined by powder XRD using reference-pattern comparison. No boiling agar extraction applies to these liquid-culture target observations.
Curated Evidence Points:
Partial
Source:
entrena_1994
Printed page 107 Table 8 and Figure 20 on page 109 (CT-2 and CT-15) and Figure 21 on page 110 (CT-2 and CT-13) assign newberyite to recovered mixed crystalline products. The phase was reported only in static cultures. These source assignments support culture association, with the analytical and control limitations below.
Partial
Source:
entrena_1994
Printed pages 107-111 and 137-139 do not report phase-specific sterile or killed-cell control results, quantitative phase refinements, replicate counts or a phase-specific P/Mg mass balance. Peaks and shoulders were assigned within dominant struvite patterns, and the authors explain that shared elemental composition makes SEM-EDX unable to identify these minor phases independently. Their approximate order-of-5%-or-less abundance and 43% detection statement are not accepted as quantitative recovery, phase purity or replicate-resolved frequency. The comparison to shaken cultures is confounded by harvesting those after 10-12 days instead of 20-22 days. The thesis proposes metabolism, autolysis and local chemistry; it does not establish a target-specific enzyme, gene or obligate biological crystallization pathway. Its cellophane experiments concern struvite and are not transferred as direct controls for the minor target phase. Laboratory culture products do not establish natural formation or industrial recovery.
Partial
Source:
entrena_1994
Discussion pages 138-139 explicitly proposes aging/decomposition of struvite as an alternative origin of newberyite during the longer static incubation. The study does not distinguish initial newberyite nucleation from transformation of a struvite precursor, nor establish the wet-culture hydration state before washing and drying. No phase-specific final pH or time course is reported.
Context_only
Source:
frazier_1963
Chemical-relationships section pages 640-641 reports newberyite or struvite formation from lower-concentration ammonium-phosphate solutions depending on pH, and newberyite plus struvite from abiotic hannayite hydrolysis at 25 degrees C in less than a week. The article gives no complete newberyite preparation recipe for these statements. It demonstrates alternative chemical pathways but does not identify which occurred in the bacterial cultures or refute their recovered-phase assignment. Its abstract names a different hydrolytic product mixture from the detailed body; no generalized reaction stoichiometry is inferred.
Sources & References
-
ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. Pages 1-2 definitions; newberyite page 154 and schertelite page 194. Previously acquired official original re-inspected on 14 October 2026.
https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-14) -
entrena_1994: Entrena Guadix, Manuel Alfredo (thesis defended 1994; institutional publication metadata 1995). Producción de estruvita y otras formas cristalinas por Myxococcus coralloides D. Doctoral thesis, Universidad de Granada; institutional handle 10481/14393. Methods printed pages 62-75, Results 107-111 with Table 8 and Figures 19-22, Discussion 137-139; complete 198-page deposited scan acquired and relevant original pages visually inspected.
https://hdl.handle.net/10481/14393 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
frazier_1963: Frazier, A. William; Lehr, James R.; Smith, James P. (1963). The magnesium phosphates hannayite, schertelite and bobierrite. American Mineralogist 48:635-641. Complete seven-page Mineralogical Society of America original inspected, including powder patterns in Table 1 and preparations/alteration on pages 638-641.
https://msaweb.org/AmMin/AM48/AM48_635.pdf (accessed 2026-10-14)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-14T09:21:17.323717+00:00 |
codex (GPT-6; codex) | CREATE | Created a distinct phosphate mineral record with inspected primary culture-phase evidence, explicit analytical and causal limits, and independently reported abiotic phase context. |
Record source: data/records/newberyite.yaml