Iron oxidizing bacterium, acidophilic

Fig. 5.4. A scheme briefly presenting the refining processes of metals from Kuroko. Although the real manufacturing processes are much more complicated, the scheme insists that zinc ion is separable from ferric arsenate after ferrous ion has been oxidized by the action of the acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacterium (or bacteria)...

Kai M, Yano T, Fukumori Y, Yamanaka T (1989) Cytochrome c oxidase of acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacterium, Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, functions at pH 3.5. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 160 839-843... 

Elbehti A, Brasseur G, Lemesle-Meunier D (2000) First evidence for existence of an uphill electron transfer through the bcY and NADH-Q oxidoreductase complexes of the acidophilic obligate chemolithotrophic ferrous iron-oxidizing bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. J Bacterid 182 3602-3606... 

Rusticyanin is found in Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, an acidophilic, chemolithotrophic sulfur bacterium utilizing Fe + and reduced sulfur compounds as its sole energy source. T. ferrooxidans does not produce rusticyanin when grown on reduced sulfur. Similar to other substrate-inducible cupredoxms, the msticyanin gene is activated when soluble iron is present in the media. Little is known about its redox partners and it should be noted that rusticyanin itself does not carry out Fe + oxidation. Other iron-oxidizing bacteria, for example, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans, prodnce a cytochrome which substitutes rusticyanin functionally. To date T. ferrooxidans remains the only source for rusticyanin. 

Johnson, D. B., Ghauri, M. A. Said, M. F. (1993). Isolation and characterization of an acidophilic, heterotrophic bacterium capable of oxidizing ferrous iron. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 58, 1423-8. 

Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, formerly known as Thiobacillus thiooxidans, is an acidophilic bacterium that oxidizes and thiosulfate, but not iron. Due to the rapid kinetics involved in sulfide oxidation by dissolved oxygen, some sulfide-oxidizing bacteria are in continuous competition with the chemical oxidation mechanism. Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, formerly known... 

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