In a quest for engineering acidophiles for biomining applications: challenges and opportunities

Genes
Yosephine GumulyaAnna H Kaksonen

Abstract

Biomining with acidophilic microorganisms has been used at commercial scale for the extraction of metals from various sulfide ores. With metal demand and energy prices on the rise and the concurrent decline in quality and availability of mineral resources, there is an increasing interest in applying biomining technology, in particular for leaching metals from low grade minerals and wastes. However, bioprocessing is often hampered by the presence of inhibitory compounds that originate from complex ores. Synthetic biology could provide tools to improve the tolerance of biomining microbes to various stress factors that are present in biomining environments, which would ultimately increase bioleaching efficiency. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art tools to genetically modify acidophilic biomining microorganisms and the limitations of these tools. The first part of this review discusses resilience pathways that can be engineered in acidophiles to enhance their robustness and tolerance in harsh environments that prevail in bioleaching. The second part of the paper reviews the efforts that have been carried out towards engineering robust microorganisms and developing metabolic modelling tools. Novel synthetic biology tools have t...Continue Reading

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Aug 26, 2018·Applied and Environmental Microbiology·Yuta InabaScott Banta
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Oct 12, 2021·Advanced Materials·Joseph Jegan RoyMadhavi Srinivasan

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
genetic modifications
gene knockout
phosphotransferase
genetic modification
environmental stress

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