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THIOBACILLUS FERROOXIDANS FOR ENHANCED METAL LEACHING CAPABILITIES.

Award Information

Agency:
National Science Foundation 		Branch:
N/A 		Award ID:
2659 		Program Year/Program:
1985 / SBIR
Agency Tracking Number:
2659 		Solicitation Year:
N/A 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N/A 		Solicitation Number:
N/A
Small Business Information
MARTEK BIOSCIENCE CORPORATION
6480 DOBBIN RD COLUMBIA, MD 21045
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 1
Fiscal Year: 1985
Title: THIOBACILLUS FERROOXIDANS FOR ENHANCED METAL LEACHING CAPABILITIES.
Agency: NSF
Contract: N/A
Award Amount: $36,000.00
 

Abstract:

THIOBACILLUS FERROOXIDANS CATALYZES IRON (II) OXIDATION AND HEAVY METAL LEACHING FROM LOW GRADE ORES BY A COMPLEX PROCESS. BIOLOGICAL LEACHING IS A COMPOSITE OF DIRECT OXIDATION OF METALS BY THE ORGANISM AND THE OXIDIZING ACTIVITY OF FE3+ PRODUCED BY BIOLOGICAL OXIDATION OF FESO4. THE BLUE COPPER PROTEIN, RUSTICYANIN, IS THOUGHT TO BE THE INITIAL ACCEPTOR OF ELECTRONS FROM FE2+ (COX & BOXER, 1978; COX ET AL., 1978; INGLEDEW, 1982; INGLEDEW ET AL., 1977; 1978) AND OTHER METALS (DISPIRITO & TUOVIENEN, 1982; 1984). THIS PROTEIN IS, THEREFORE, A KEY INTERMEDIATE IN METAL OXIDATION AND LEACHING. COX & BOXER (UNPUBLISHED) HAVE ALSOOBTAINED EVIDENCE THAT RUSTICYANIN CATALYZES THE RATE LIMITING STEP IN METAL OXIDATION BY T.FERROOXIDANS. WE HOPE TO DEOMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF A MOLECULAR BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO CLONING THE GENE ENCODING RUSTICYANIN. THIS REQUIRES DEVELOPMENT OF GENETIC TRANSFORMATION AND CLONING SYSTEMS IN T.FERROOXIDANS, AND A METHOD FOR SELECTING REUSTICYANIN-DEFICIENT MUTANTS. IN PARALLEL, WE WILL (I) TRANSFER ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE TO THE ORGANISM BY A METHOD DESCRIBED FOR OTHER THIOBACILLI (DAVIDSON & SUMMERS, 1983; HOLMES ET AL., 1983; KULPA ET AL., 1983) (IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND TRANSFORMATION AND CLONING IN T.FERROOXIDANS), AND (II) DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF SELECTING RUSTICYANIN-DEFICIENT MUTANTS. COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS LIE IN THE ABILITY TO CONSTRUCT A SYSTEM FOR LEACHING HIGH VALUE AND STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT METALS FROM LOW GRADE ORES THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE ECONOMICALLY UNWORKABLE.

Principal Investigator:

John c cox phd
SCIENTIST
3014902566

Business Contact:

Small Business Information at Submission:

Martek Corp
9115 Guilford Rd Columbia, MD 21046

EIN/Tax ID:
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees: N/A
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No