The widely distributed Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (A. ferrooxidans) lives in extremely acidic conditions by fixing CO and nitrogen, and by obtaining energy from Fe oxidation with either downhill or uphill electron transfer pathway and from reduced sulfur oxidation. A. ferrooxidans exists as different genomovars and its genome size is 2.89-4.18 Mb. The chemotactic movement of A. ferrooxidans is regulated by quorum sensing. A. ferrooxidans shows weak magnetotaxis due to formation of 15-70 nm magnetite magnetosomes with surface functional groups. The room- and low-temperature magnetic features of A. ferrooxidans are different from other magnetotactic bacteria. A. ferrooxidans has potential for removing sulfur from solids and gases, metals recycling from metal-bearing ores, electric wastes and sludge, biochemical production synthesizing, and metal workpiece machining.
Iron is the fourth most abundant chemical element by weight in the earth's crust and exists in the forms of ferrous Fe(II) and ferric Fe(III) [1]. Its cycling on our planet is an extremely complex process involving both abiotic and biotic components [2]. As important members in biotic cycling of iron, iron-cycling bacteria (ICB) including iron-oxidizing bacteria (IOB) and iron-reducing bacteria (IRB), and magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) can convert iron to biocomposites such as oxides, hydroxides [4][5][6].
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