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Microbial Communities in Acid Mine Drainage and Their Interaction with Pyrite Surface

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Abstract

Microbes such as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans have been investigated a lot, because of their important role in acid mine drainage (AMD) generation. In this article, the composition of microbial communities in two AMD samples was studied. A culture-independent 16S rDNA-based cloning approach, restriction fragment length polymorphism has been used. The interaction between microbes and natural pyrite specimen surface was researched by scanning electrode microscopy (SEM) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The phylogenetic analysis revealed bacteria in these two samples fell into three major groups: Proteobacteria, Nitrospira, and Firmicutes. Archaea was also detected in these two samples. Thermoplasma and Ferroplasma lineages were abundant. From SEM and FISH, a number of A. ferrooxidans, a few cells of Archaea and Acidiphilium were detected adsorbed on the pyrite specimen surface. Leptospirillum sp. (hybridize with the probe LF655) has not been detected to be present on the pyrite specimen surface.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2004CB619204), the Special Fund Project for Authors of National Excellent Ph.D Thesis, China (200549), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 50874032, 50374075), the Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (B604), and Shanhai Tongji Gao TingYao Environmental Science & Technology Development Fund. We should also thank Prof. Yuehua Hu, Dr. Zhiguo He, and Dr. Zhaohui Wang for their help to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Xuehui Xie, Shengmu Xiao & Jianshe Liu

  2. School of Resources Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Jianshe Liu

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  1. Xuehui Xie
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  2. Shengmu Xiao
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  3. Jianshe Liu
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Correspondence to Jianshe Liu.

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Xie, X., Xiao, S. & Liu, J. Microbial Communities in Acid Mine Drainage and Their Interaction with Pyrite Surface. Curr Microbiol 59, 71–77 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-009-9394-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-009-9394-y

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