The response of the obligate acidophilic bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans to external pH changes is reported. When T. ferrooxidans cells grown at pH 1.5 were shifted to pH 3.5, there were several changes in the general protein synthesis pattern, including a large stimulation of the synthesis of a 36-kDa protein (p36). The apparent low isoelectric point of p36, its location in the membrane fr...

DNA sequence analysis and bioinformatic interpretations have identified two adjacent clusters of genes potentially involved in the formation of a bc1 complex and in the maturation of a cytochrome c-type protein in two strains (ATCC 19859 and ATCC 33020) of the acidophilic, chemolithoautotrophic bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (formerly Thiobacillus ferrooxidans). Reverse transcriptase-...

Indigenous acidophilic bacteria separated from mine-waste can be used in return for the addition of the reagents like sulfuric acid. Among the tailings bacteria, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans are of the most-studied ones for the bioleaching and bioremediation of elements. In this work, the isolation and characterization of the mentioned bacteria are studied by...

Studies of the obligate chemoautotrophic iron bacteria have been largely descriptive in character. This situation is not due to any lack of interest in the physiology and biochemistry of these bacteria, but rather to the inability to grow them in large numbers, and the attendant problem of harvesting cells free from the voluminous precipitate of iron that accompanies growth. Silverman and Lundg...

The chemolithoautotrophic bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is of great importance in biomining operations. During the bioleaching of ores, microorganisms are subjected to a variety of environmental stresses and to the limitations of some nutrients, such as inorganic phosphate (P(i)), which is an essential component for all living cells. Although the primary source of phosphorus for micr...

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is an extremophilic bacterium used in biomining processes to recover metals. The presence in A. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 of canonical copper resistance determinants does not entirely explain the extremely high copper concentrations this microorganism is able to stand, suggesting the existence of other efficient copper resistance mechanisms. New possible copper resi...

The variety of kinetics expressions encountered in the literature and the unreasonably broad range of values reported for the kinetics constants of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans underscore the need for a unifying experimental procedure and for the development of a reliable kinetics equation. Following an extensive and critical review of reported experimental techniques, a method based on batch...