Interfacial Interactions between Metal Sulphides and Biomining Microbes: Insight into Biofilms and Omics Advances
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2018) | Viewed by 21335
Special Issue Editors
Interests: bioleaching; biocorrosion; microbial-material interactions; biofilms
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: atomic force microscopy; adhesion force; extracellular polymeric substances; bioleaching
Interests: biofilms; biofouling ecology and chemistry; biocorrosion/bioleaching
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Biomining has been successfully applied worldwide as a technology for metal recovery. The predominant biomining microorganisms are extremely acidophilic bacteria and archaea (i.e., microorganisms that thrive at pH values below 3). These are able to oxidize reduced inorganic sulfur compounds (RISCs) and/or iron(II)-ions. Biomining microbes are distributed among the Proteobacteria (Acidithiobacillus, Acidiphilium, Acidiferrobacter, Ferrovum), Nitrospirae (Leptospirillum), Firmicutes (Alicyclobacillus, Sulfobacillus) and Actinobacteria (Ferrimicrobium, Acidimicrobium, Ferrithrix), Crenarchaeota (Sulfolobus, Acidianus, Metallosphaera) and Euryarchaeota (Ferroplasma, Acidiplasma). The two well-established leaching modes are non-contact and contact leaching. The latter takes into account that most cells attach and form biofilms on the surface of sulfide minerals. This means that the electrochemical processes that result in the dissolution of sulfide minerals take place at the interface between the bacterial cell and the mineral surface. Interfacial science, including cell attachment and biofilm formation, as well as functional analysis of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), contribute to the understanding of the microbe–minerals interactions, as well as to microbial industrial applications. This Special Issue aims to publish papers on recent advances in interfacial studies relevant to microbial catalyzed mineral dissolution processes. These include characterization of attachment and biofilm formation on mineral surfaces and advanced microscopic studies of microbe–mineral interactions. Studies on the physiology and phylogeny of biomining microbes, as well as recent omics data relevant to the understanding of the interfacial science, are also welcome.
Dr. Ruiyong ZhangDr. Qian Li
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Sand
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- Biomining
- Attachment
- Adhesion force
- Biofilms
- Extracellular polymeric substances
- Fluorescence microscopy
- Atomic force microscopy
- Proteomics
- Genomics
- Bioinformatics
- Acidophiles
- Thermo-acidophilic archaea
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