[Isolation and identification of Mn oxidizing bacterium Aminobacter sp. H1 and its oxidation mechanism]

A bacterium with high manganese oxidizing activity was isolated from a biological manganese removal filter and named as H1. Based on its characteristics and the analysis of 16S rDNA sequence, the strain H1 belonged to the genus Aminobacter sp. and its manganese oxidizing ability had never been reported. In this paper, the microbiologic properties of the strain H1, the manganese oxidation mechanisms and characteristics of biogenic manganese oxides were investigated. The results showed that the maximal tolerant Mn concentration of strain H1 was 50 mmol x L(-1), and Mn(II) could be completely removed by strain H1 when the concentration was lower than 10 mmol x L(-1). Strain H1 could oxidize Mn2+ by both the production of manganese oxidizing activity factor and alkaline metabolites during growth, which were synthesized in the cell and then secreted into extracellular culture medium. During the oxidation process, the intermediate of soluble Mn(III) was detected. SEM showed that the biogenic manganese oxides were amorphous and poorly-crystalline, and it closely combined with bacteria. The components of the biogenic manganese oxides produced by strain H1 were identified as MnCO3, MnOOH, Mn3O4 and MnO2 by XRD, XPS and SEM-EDX.