Applicability of the manometric method for studying the oxidation of pyritic material in the presence of bacteria has been demonstrated. Resting cells of Ferrobacillus ferrooxidans accelerated the oxidation of coal pyrites and coarsely crystalline marcasite, but were inactive on coarsely crystalline pyrite. Resting cells of Thiobacillus thiooxidans were inactive on all pyrites tested. Oxidation...

The chromosomal arsenic resistance genes of the acidophilic, chemolithoautotrophic, biomining bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans were cloned and sequenced. Homologues of four arsenic resistance genes, arsB, arsC, arsH, and a putative arsR gene, were identified. The T. ferrooxidans arsB (arsenite export) and arsC (arsenate reductase) gene products were functional when they were cloned in an Esc...

The synthesis, molecular structure, and electronic structure characterization of two five-coordinate high-spin imidazolate-ligated iron(II) porphyrinates are reported. Their electronic structure, as deduced from Mössbauer spectra obtained in strong magnetic fields, is distinctly different from that of the analogous imidazole-ligated species. The resulting electronic structure models are consist...

Ferrobacillus ferrooxidans was isolated and named by Leathen and Braley (1) in 1954 and reported to be an obligate chemoautotroph which utilizes the oxidation of inorganic ferrous iron as a primary energy source. A somewhat similar bacterium, called Thiobaeillus ferrooxiduns, had previously been isolated by Cohner, Temple, and Hinkle (2) and characterized as an obligate chemoautotroph which wou...

A combination of EXAFS, transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray was used to conduct a molecular and atomic analysis of the uranium complexes formed by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. The results demonstrate that this bacterium accumulates uranium as phosphate compounds. We suggest that at toxic levels when the uranium enters the bacterial cells, A. ferrooxidans can detoxify...

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was partially purified from both glucose-grown and iron-glucose-grown Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. The enzyme possesses a dual nucleotide specificity for either nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP) or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and has a molecular weight of 110,000 as determined by gel electrophoresis. Evidence is presented that T. ferr...

The mining industry is looking forward for bacterial consortia for economic extraction of copper from low-grade ores. The main objective was to determine an optimal bacterial consortium from several bacterial strains to obtain copper from the leach of chalcopyrite. The major native bacterial species involved in the bioleaching of sulphide ore (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus t...

Formate-grown cells of the obligately chemolithoautotrophic acidophile Thiobacillus ferrooxidans were capable of formate- and elemental sulfur-dependent reduction of ferric iron under anaerobic conditions. Under aerobic conditions, both oxygen and ferric iron could be simultaneously used as electron acceptors. To investigate whether anaerobic ferric iron respiration by T. ferrooxidans is an ene...

A simple metabolic model of ferrous oxidizing bacteria based on biochemically structured balances of ATP and NAD(P)H is proposed in order to calculate maximum yield and maintenance on ATP. Similar values of growth yield and maintenance were obtained using data of ferrous iron and/or oxygen consumption in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans cultures on iron under different conditions. When pyrite was...