Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans are acidophilic chemolithoautotrophs that are commonly reported to exhibit diauxic population growth behavior where ferrous iron is oxidized before elemental sulfur when both are available, despite the higher energy content of sulfur. We have discovered sulfur dispersion formulations that enables sulfur oxidation before ferrous iron oxidation. The oxidation of dispersed sulfur can lower the culture pH within days below the range where aerobic ferrous iron oxidation can occur so that ferric iron reduction occurs which had previously been reported over extended incubation periods with untreated sulfur. Therefore, we demonstrate that this substrate utilization pattern is strongly dependent on the cell loading in relation to sulfur concentration, sulfur surface hydrophobicity, and the pH of the culture. Our dispersed sulfur formulation, lig-sulfur, can be used to support the rapid antibiotic selection of plasmid-transformed cells, which is not possible in liquid cultures where ferrous iron is the main source of energy for these acidophiles. Furthermore, we find that media containing lig-sulfur supports higher production of green fluorescent protein (GFP) compared to media containing ferrous iron. The use of dispersed sulfur is a valuable new tool for the development of engineered A. ferrooxidans strains and it provides a new method to control iron and sulfur oxidation behaviors.

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans cells can oxidize iron and sulfur and are key members of the microbial biomining communities that are exploited in the large-scale bioleaching of metal sulfide ores. Some minerals are recalcitrant to bioleaching due to presence of other inhibitory materials in the ore bodies. Additives are intentionally included in processed metals to reduce environmental and microbially influenced corrosion. We have previously reported a new aerobic corrosion mechanism where A. ferrooxidans cells combined with pyrite and chloride can oxidize low grade stainless steel (SS304) with a thiosulfate-mediated mechanism. Here we explore process conditions and genetic engineering of the cells to enable corrosion of a higher grade steel (SS316). The addition of elemental sulfur and an increase in the cell loading resulted in a 74% increase in the corrosion of SS316 as compared to sulfur- and cell-free control experiments. The overexpression of the endogenous rus gene, which is involved in the cellular iron oxidation pathway, led to further 85% increase in the corrosion of the steel. Thus, the modification of the culturing conditions and cell line, led to a more than 3-fold increase in the corrosion of SS316 stainless steel, such that 15% of the metal coupons was dissolved in just 2 weeks. This work demonstrates how the engineering of cells and the optimization of their cultivation conditions can be used to discover conditions that lead to the corrosion of a complex metal target.