Autotrophic organisms can use carbon dioxide as their sole source of carbon. Within this group, the chemosynthetic bacteria secure energy for carbon dioxide assimilation by the oxidation of simple inorganic substances, although the photosynthetic organisms obtain this energy from light. The phylogenetic relationships of the chemosynthetic bacteria to the photosynthetic and to the heterotrophic ...

The composition of bacterial populations in copper bioleaching systems was investigated by analysis of DNA obtained either directly from ores or leaching solutions or after laboratory cultures. This analysis consisted of the characterization of the spacer regions between the 16 and 23S genes in the bacterial rRNA genetic loci after PCR amplification. The sizes of the spacer regions, amplified f...