Uranium (U) contamination of the environment causes high risk to health, demanding for effective and sustainable remediation. Bioremediation via microbial reduction soluble U(VI) is generating fractions (>50%) insoluble non-crystalline U(IV) which, however, might be remobilized by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. In this study, efficacy Acidithiobacillus (At.) ferrooxidans Thiobacillus (T.) de...

Refractory clay tiles are composed of kaolin, which is the commercial name of clay, and this consists mainly of kaolinite mineral. Two such tiles and caowool packed in glass columns were used for the immobilization of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans cells in a ferrous iron medium, which was percolated through the supports. Colonization was carried out by several media replacements with no furthe...

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans strain D3-2, which has a high copper bioleaching activity, was isolated from a low-grade sulfide ore dump in Chile. The amounts of Cu(2+) solubilized from 1% chalcopyrite (CuFeS(2)) concentrate medium (pH 2.5) by A. ferrooxidans strains D3-2, D3-6, and ATCC 23270 and 33020 were 1360, 1080, 650, and 600 mg x l(-1) x 30 d(-1). The iron oxidase activities of D3-2, D3...

Following the trend of studies that investigate microbial ecosystems using different metagenomic techniques, we propose a new integrative systems ecology approach that aims to decipher functional roles within a consortium through the integration of genomic and metabolic knowledge at genome scale. For the sake of application, using public genomes of five bacterial strains involved in copper biol...

Bacterial contact leaching of ores is more effective than non-contact leaching. Adhesion is the first step for leaching bacteria to form a biofilm on a mineral surface. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are pivotal for mediating bacterial adhesion to a substratum. In order to clarify the role of EPS, we measured the adhesion forces between chalcopyrite-, sulfuror FeSO4·7H2O-grown cells o...