Yi Li Liang

Metagenomic Insights into the Microbial Community Diversity between Leaching Heap and Acid Mine Drainage

The leaching heap and acid mine drainage are two key nodes in a bioleaching system. This study aimed to investigate the microbial community structural and functional diversity between the two nodes in bioleaching system from Dexing copper mine in Jiangxi province, China. 16SrRNA gene cloning and metagenomic analysis consistently indicated that there were obvious differences on microbial community structural and functional diversity in the two nodes. In leaching heap, the dominant species was the heterotrophic bacterium Acidiphilium; while the dominant species was the autotrophic bacterium Acidithiobacillus in acid mine drainage. Seven bacteria species were found in both two nodes, while the unique bacteria species in leaching heap and acid mine drainage were eleven and eight, respectively. In relation to the microbial community function aspect, all contigs and singlets were annotated against the non-redundant protein database of NCBI and clustering analyzed with COG database. For the two nodes, the COG clustering results showed that the functional category abundances were different, though the functional categories were similar. And the great majority of ORFs were forecasted as function unknown. All the results meant that the microbial community structural and functional diversity of bioleaching system was not as simple as former thought. This study could provide a new meta-view of theoretical support to bioleaching process.

Comparative Study of Fluoride-Tolerance of Five Typical Bioleaching Microorganisms

In the bioleaching of uranium ore, fluoride that ever accreted with the ore floats into solution, inhibiting the growth and metabolic processes of microorganism or even killing them, further reducing the efficiency of uranium leaching. In order to study the fluoride tolerance of the bioleaching microorganisms, five typical bioleaching strains including Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 23270, Leptospirillum ferriphilum YSK, Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans ST, Acidithiobacills thiooxidans A01, Acidithiobacills caldus S1 were selected to compare their growth fluctuation and their oxidation rate of iron or sulfur in the presence of different concentration of fluoride. The results showed that At. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 held the best fluoride tolerance, while S. thermosulfidooxidans ST took the worst. In order to explore the mechanism of microbial resistance to fluoride, whole-genome array (WGA) was used to analyze the genome-wide expression profiling of At. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 upon 4.8 mM fluoride stress. The results showed that gene categories closely related to fluoride tolerance include cell membrane, energy metabolism, transport and binding functions of proteins, DNA metabolism, cell processing, synthesis and transportation of protein and other functional and metabolic pathways. Most of the genes associated with iron-sulfur metabolic system of At. ferrooxidans were highly expressed during 10 to 120 minutes, while in the long-term stress for 4 hours, the gene expression returned to normal level or even were down regulated. All these results provide useful information for further research on domesticating bacteria and increasing the efficiency of uranium leaching.

Bioleaching of Cadmium from Contaminated Paddy Fields by Consortium of Autotrophic and Indigenous Cadmium-Tolerant Bacteria

It has been a major issue for urgent solution in China as a result of a series of poisoning cases caused by cadmium. Yet there is no effective methods for removal of cadmium from the paddy soils. Microbial leaching process as an effective approach is currently applied to remediate the contaminated soils. In this study, bioleaching of cadmium from contaminated paddy soils by consortium of autotrophic and indigenous cadmium-tolerant bacteria was applied. The bioleaching results showed that the leaching rate of cadmium was from 74.93% to 92.76%. The distribution of the Cd fractions had a significant change before and after bioleaching with the organic fraction and residues fraction mainly remained. Moreover, the microbial community analysis showed that the Acidithiobacillus and Acidiphilium became the dominant genus in the bioleaching process. The combination of bioleaching with acidophilic chemolithotrophic microorganisms and the cadmium-resistant bacteria provides a potential process for bioremediation of metal-contaminated soils.

Investigation of Fluoride Tolerance in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

Anionic ion species occur in gangue minerals and impact the bioleaching efficiency even at low concentrations. Recently, the detrimental influence of fluoride ions on bioleaching microorganisms has caused great attention in research. However, the tolerance mechanisms of bioleaching microorganisms for fluoride are still unclear. In order to reveal fluoride tolerance, culture experiments with different concentrations of fluoride and ferrous iron-grown Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans were carried out. The results showed that oxidation-reduction potential, oxidation capacity of iron and cell density were all negatively correlated to the fluoride concentration. The growth of A. ferrooxidans showed a longer delayed time and a slower growth rate when fluoride concentration increased. The fluoride tolerance for A. ferrooxidans could be attributed to the generated ferric ions from ferrous oxidation. Ferric ions reacted with HF to decrease the concentration of F- and finally reduced the toxicity of fluoride on A. ferrooxidans.

Comparison of Indigenous and Exogenous Mesophilic Bacteria for the Bioleaching of Low Grade Copper Ores

Using indigenous microorganisms in biomining processes assures few ecological distortions and less time consumption for adaptation. However, there is a debate as to whether an indigenous microbial community is more efficient than one composed of microbial strains selected for specific physiological traits. In order to provide thoughtful opinions in such a debate, a cross-comparison of six strains isolated from two different regions: Chambishi Copper Mine (Zambia) and Dexing Copper Mine (China), was conducted. Physiological properties and leaching performancesof Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, and Leptospirillum ferriphilum in pure and mixed culture were studied. The results showed that strains within species presented similar traits while copper resistance was not species-specific. In terms of leaching efficiency, native strains always achieved higher cell density and greater iron and copper extraction rates than the exogenous. In addition, microbial community analysis revealed the different mixed culture shared almost the same profile, and At. ferrooxidans strains always outcompeted the other strains.