The chemoautotropic microorganism Thiobacillus thioparus requires orthophosphate or arsenate for the complete oxidation of thiosulfate to sulfate (1). This observation has been further extended by Santer (2), who observed that during the oxidation of thiosulfate by intact cells of this organism, 0’8 is transferred from orthophosphate to the sulfate formed during the oxidation. This transfer was...

The elemental sulfur formation by the partial oxidation of thiosulfate by both a sulfoxidizing consortium and by Thiobacillus thioparus ATCC 23645 was studied under aerobic conditions in chemostat. Steady state was attained with essentially total conversion to sulfate when the dissolved oxygen concentration was 5 mgO2 l(-1) and below a dilution rate (D) of 3.0 d(-1)for the consortium and 0.9 d(...

Phosphatidyl glycerol, disphosphatidyl glycerol, and phosphatidyl ethanolamine were found in all of the Thiobacillus species studied. T. thioparus possessed only these phospholipids. T. intermedius, T. neapolitanus, and T. thiooxidans contained phosphatidyl-N-monomethylethanolamine, and T. novellus lipids contained phosphatidyl-N-monomethylethanolamine, phosphatidyl-N-N-dimethylethanolamine, an...

Carbonyl sulfide (COS) is one of the major sources of stratospheric sulfate aerosols, which affect the global radiation balance and ozone depletion. COS-degrading microorganisms are ubiquitous in soil and important for the global flux of COS. We examined the sulfur isotopic fractionation during the enzymatic degradation of COS by carbonyl sulfide hydrolase (COSase) from Thiobacillus thioparus T...

Bacterial strain LV43 was previously isolated from a floating microbial mat located in Movile Cave, the access point to a chemoautotrophically based groundwater ecosystem in southern Romania. This gram-negative, rod-shaped organism grows autotrophically through the oxidation of thiosulfate and sulfide, but it does not grow heterotrophically. Strain LV43 grows over a pH range of 5.0 to 9.0, with...