In order to increase the concentration of the nutritionally essential sulphur amino acids in seed protein, a transgene encoding a methionine- and cysteine-rich protein, sunflower seed albumin (SSA), was transferred to chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L). Transgenic seeds that accumulated SSA contained more methionine and less oxidized sulphur than the controls, suggesting that additional demand for s...

Heap leaching is a well-established metallurgical technology which allows metal recovery (e.g., Au, Cu, U) from low-grade ores. However, spent heap leach materials remaining at abandoned or historic mine sites may represent a potential source of contamination. At the Croydon Au-mines, heap leaching operations (1984–1985) were performed on mineralized rhyolites hosting sulphides including pyrite...

The symbiotic partnership of plants and fungi was a critical means nutrient uptake during colonization the terrestrial surface. Lower Devonian Rhynie Chert shows evidence for extensive phosphorus mobilization in plant debris that pervasively colonized by fungi. Sandy sediment entrapped with fungi-rich phytodebris contains grains phosphate mineral monazite which exhibit alteration to highly poro...

Authors Response to the Comments by Reviewer 3 General comments Reviewer’s Comment: The manuscript “Pyrite Oxidation under initially neutral pH conditions and in the presence of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and micromolar hydrogen peroxide” submitted by Y. Man and C. Lin, is interesting in so far as the studies about this issue are relatively scarce. However, in my opinion, selected pyrite cu...

In the case of pyrite bioleaching by Leptospirillum ferrooxidans, an organism without sulfur-oxidizing capacity, besides the production of tetra- and pentathionate, a considerable accumulation of elemental sulfur occurred. A similar result was obtained for chemical oxidation assays with acidic, sterile iron(III) ion-containing solutions. In the case of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, only slight amo...

Iron-sulphur clusters are one of the most common types of redox centre in biology. At least six proteins (IscS, IscU, IscA, HscB, HscA and ferredoxin) have been identified as being essential for the biogenesis of iron-sulphur proteins in bacteria. It has been shown that IscS is a cysteine desulphurase that provides sulphur for iron-sulphur clusters, and that IscU is a scaffold for the IscS-medi...

The elemental composition of keratohyalin granules from the interpapillary and papillary lingual epithelium and the oesophageal epithelium of the rat were studied by X-ray microanalysis in an EMMA-4 analytical electron microscope, equipped with an energy dispersive detector. A quantitative assay of the sulphur concentration in keratohyalin granules was performed, using a suitable sulphur standa...