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Comparative study of nickel resistance of pure culture and co-culture of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferriphilum

Archives of Microbiology volume 195, pages 637–646 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

The effect of Ni2+ on the growth and functional gene expression of the pure culture and co-culture of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferriphilum has been studied. Compared with the pure culture, the co-culture showed a stronger sulfur and ferrous ion oxidation activity. At 100 mM, A. thiooxidans in co-culture grew faster and had 48 h shorter lag phases. The cell number of A. thiooxidans in co-culture was about 5 times higher than that in pure culture. The existence of A. thiooxidans in co-culture activated the expression of some metal resistance genes in L. ferriphilum at least 16 h in advance. A. thiooxidans in co-culture tends to chose more efficient pathways to transport nickel ion, ensuring the export of heavy metal was faster and more effective than that in pure culture. All the data indicated that there were synergetic interactions between iron- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria under the stress of Ni2+.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Key Basic Research Project of China (No. 2010CB630901), High Tech Research and Development Program (863 Program: 2012AA061502), and National Natural Science Foundation (No. 31070104 and No. 31100033) of China.

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Affiliations

  1. School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China

    Ying Xu, Huaqun Yin, Huidan Jiang, Yili Liang, Xue Guo, Liyuan Ma, Yunhua Xiao & Xueduan Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Biometallurgy, Ministry of Education, Changsha, 41008, Hunan, China

    Ying Xu, Huaqun Yin, Huidan Jiang, Yili Liang, Xue Guo, Liyuan Ma, Yunhua Xiao & Xueduan Liu

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  1. Ying Xu
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  2. Huaqun Yin
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  3. Huidan Jiang
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  4. Yili Liang
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  5. Xue Guo
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  6. Liyuan Ma
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  7. Yunhua Xiao
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  8. Xueduan Liu
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Correspondence to Yili Liang or Xueduan Liu.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Xu, Y., Yin, H., Jiang, H. et al. Comparative study of nickel resistance of pure culture and co-culture of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferriphilum . Arch Microbiol 195, 637–646 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-013-0900-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-013-0900-z

Keywords

  • Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans
  • Leptospirillum ferriphilum
  • Nickel
  • Sulfur oxidation
  • Ferrous ion oxidation
  • RT-PCR
  • Functional gene analysis