New Article Published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology

A new manuscript by Zurier, Farinato, Kucharzyk and Banta describes the unexpected discovery that Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans has a very high tolerance to the rare earth elements, which are far more toxic to mesophiles.   The outer cell membrane is responsible for the observed resistance and these results suggest that acidophilic bioleaching microbes could be used in the processing of these technology critical metals.