Divalent metal cation adsorption onto Leptothrix cholodnii SP-6SL bacterial cells

• The first study to measure metal adsorption onto Fe-oxidizing bacteria.
• The Fe-oxidizing bacteria exhibit similar adsorption to previously studied species.
• Fe-oxidizing bacteria can compete effectively for metals with biogenic iron oxides.

Bacteriogenic iron oxide (BIOS) particles have a high affinity to adsorb inorganic nutrients such as Ca, Mg, Zn, and Ni, raising the question of how Fe(II) oxidizing bacteria (FeOB) compete for these same cations while the BIOS are in such close proximity to the cells. Answering this question requires a detailed understanding of metal binding properties of FeOB.In this study, the adsorption behaviors of aqueous Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr, Cd, and Pb onto the sheathless FeOB Leptothrix cholodnii SP-6SL were measured separately, and the adsorption behaviors were compared to that of Bacillus subtilis in order to determine if the iron oxidizing bacterial species exhibits similar binding properties to those of most previously studied bacterial species. The experiments for both species were performed aerobically; ionic strength was held constant with 0.1 M NaClO4; the experiments were conducted as a function of pH over the range of 2 to 9; and biomass and metal concentrations were 10 g (wet weight)/L and 2 ppm, respectively.Our results show that the two studied bacterial species exhibit similar adsorption of the tested metals, and that although some iron oxides formed during L. cholodnii SP-6SL liquid culture growth, they are present in low enough concentrations not to significantly affect the extent of metal adsorption. We apply a linear free-energy approach to define relationships between the stability constants for site-specific metal-bacterial surface complexes and corresponding metal-acetate binding constants. We use these relationships to estimate binding constants for L. cholodnii for some metals that have not been studied, and we apply these results to calculate the ability of L. cholodnii to compete for nutrients with BIOS particles that form during Fe(II) oxidation by the bacteria.