Thiobacillus cuprinus sp. nov., a Novel Facultatively Organotrophic Metal-Mobilizing Bacterium

Five strains of mesophilic, facultatively organotrophic, ore-leaching eubacteria were isolated from solfatara fields in Iceland and a uranium mine in the Federal Republic of Germany. The new organisms are aerobic gram-negative rods. They can use sulfidic ores or elemental sulfur as sole energy source, indicating that they belong to the genus Thiobacillus. Alternatively, they grow on organic substrates such as yeast extract, peptone, and pyruvate. In contrast to the other leaching bacteria known so far, the new isolates are unable to oxidize ferrous iron. They consist of extreme and moderate acidophiles growing optimally at pH 3 and 4, respectively. The extreme acidophiles showed leaching characteristics similar to those shown by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, while the moderate acidophiles exhibited a pronounced preference for copper leaching on some chalcopyrite ores. The G+C content of the DNA is between 66 and 69 mol%, depending on the isolate. In DNA-DNA hybridization experiments, the new strains showed homologies among each other of >70%, indicating that they belong to the same species. No significant DNA homology to Thiobacillus reference strains was detectable. Therefore, the new isolates represent a new species of Thiobacillus, which we name Thiobacillus cuprinus. Isolate Hö5 is designated as the type strain (DSM 5495).