Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Applied and Environmental Microbiology logoLink to Applied and Environmental Microbiology
. 1985 Aug;50(2):460–467. doi: 10.1128/aem.50.2.460-467.1985

Growth Kinetics of Attached Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria

Paul L Wichlacz 1,†,*, Richard F Unz 1
PMCID: PMC238643  PMID: 16346863

Abstract

A model of growth and substrate utilization for ferrous-iron-oxidizing bacteria attached to the disks of a rotating biological contactor was developed and tested. The model describes attached bacterial growth as a saturation function in which the rate of substrate utilization is determined by a maximum substrate oxidation rate constant (P), a half-saturation constant (Ks), and the concentration of substrate within the rotating biological contactor (S1). The maximum oxidation rate constant was proportional to flow rate, and the substrate concentration in the reactor varied with influent substrate concentration (S0). The model allowed the prediction of metabolic constants and included terms for both constant and growth-rate-dependent maintenance energies. Estimates for metabolic constants of the attached population of acidophilic, chemolithotrophic, iron-oxidizing bacteria limited by ferrous iron were: maximum specific growth rate (μmax), 1.14 h−1; half-saturation constant (Ks) for ferrous iron, 54.9 mg/liter; constant maintenance energy coefficient (m1), 0.154 h−1; growth-rate-dependent maintenance energy coefficient (m′), 0.07 h−1; maximum yield (Yg), 0.063 mg of organic nitrogen per mg of Fe(II) oxidized.

Full text

PDF
460

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Braddock J. F., Luong H. V., Brown E. J. Growth Kinetics of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans Isolated from Arsenic Mine Drainage. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1984 Jul;48(1):48–55. doi: 10.1128/aem.48.1.48-55.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Dugan P. R., MacMillan C. B., Pfister R. M. Aerobic heterotrophic bacteria indigenous to pH 2.8 acid mine water: microscopic examination of acid streamers. J Bacteriol. 1970 Mar;101(3):973–981. doi: 10.1128/jb.101.3.973-981.1970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Ingledew W. J. Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. The bioenergetics of an acidophilic chemolithotroph. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1982 Nov 30;683(2):89–117. doi: 10.1016/0304-4173(82)90007-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Kelly D. P. Biochemistry of the chemolithotrophic oxidation of inorganic sulphur. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1982 Sep 13;298(1093):499–528. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1982.0094. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Pirt S. J. Maintenance energy: a general model for energy-limited and energy-sufficient growth. Arch Microbiol. 1982 Dec 3;133(4):300–302. doi: 10.1007/BF00521294. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Tuovinen O. H., Kelly D. P. Studies on the growth of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. I. Use of membrane filters and ferrous iron agar to determine viable numbers, and comparison with 14 CO 2 -fixation and iron oxidation as measures of growth. Arch Mikrobiol. 1973;88(4):285–298. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Wichlacz P. L., Unz R. F. Acidophilic, heterotrophic bacteria of acidic mine waters. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1981 May;41(5):1254–1261. doi: 10.1128/aem.41.5.1254-1261.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Applied and Environmental Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES