TY - JOUR AU - Valdés, Jorge AU - Pedroso, Inti AU - Quatrini, Raquel AU - Dodson, Robert J. AU - Tettelin, Herve AU - Blake, Robert AU - Eisen, Jonathan A. AU - Holmes, David S. PY - 2008 DA - 2008/12/11 TI - Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans metabolism: from genome sequence to industrial applications JO - BMC Genomics SP - 597 VL - 9 IS - 1 AB - Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is a major participant in consortia of microorganisms used for the industrial recovery of copper (bioleaching or biomining). It is a chemolithoautrophic, γ-proteobacterium using energy from the oxidation of iron- and sulfur-containing minerals for growth. It thrives at extremely low pH (pH 1–2) and fixes both carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere. It solubilizes copper and other metals from rocks and plays an important role in nutrient and metal biogeochemical cycling in acid environments. The lack of a well-developed system for genetic manipulation has prevented thorough exploration of its physiology. Also, confusion has been caused by prior metabolic models constructed based upon the examination of multiple, and sometimes distantly related, strains of the microorganism. SN - 1471-2164 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-9-597 DO - 10.1186/1471-2164-9-597 ID - Valdés2008 ER -