Comparative genomic analysis of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans strains using the A. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 whole-genome oligonucleotide microarray.

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is an important microorganism used in biomining operations for metal recovery. Whole-genomic diversity analysis based on the oligonucleotide microarray was used to analyze the gene content of 12 strains of A. ferrooxidans purified from various mining areas in China. Among the 3100 open reading frames (ORFs) on the slides, 1235 ORFs were absent in at least 1 strain of bacteria and 1385 ORFs were conserved in all strains. The hybridization results showed that these strains were highly diverse from a genomic perspective. The hybridization results of 4 major functional gene categories, namely electron transport, carbon metabolism, extracellular polysaccharides, and detoxification, were analyzed. Based on the hybridization signals obtained, a phylogenetic tree was built to analyze the evolution of the 12 tested strains, which indicated that the geographic distribution was the main factor influencing the strain diversity of these strains. Based on the hybridization signals of genes associated with bioleaching, another phylogenetic tree showed an evolutionary relationship from which the co-relation between the clustering of specific genes and geochemistry could be observed. The results revealed that the main factor was geochemistry, among which the following 6 factors were the most important: pH, Mg, Cu, S, Fe, and Al.