Evaluation of iron-reducing bacteria in soil and the physiological mechanism of iron-reduction in Aerobacter aerogenes

✍ Scribed by J. C. G. Ottow

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 229 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0233-111X
• DOI: 10.1002/jobm.19680080512

✦ Synopsis

Iron has an intimate relationship with life in general and with simple forms of life in particular. It is well established that ferrous iron may serve as an energy source during oxidation for specific chemoautotrophic bacteria. The reduction of ferric iron into the ferrous state, however, is an energy requiring. endergonic process ( A F > 0), frequently revealed in nature by a grey discolorization under conditions which preclude free access of oxygen, such as a t great depth in bottom waters, in paddy soils or gleys. If the dissolution of iron is caused by bacterial activity, these organisms should be ubiquitously distributed in order to explain the wide-spread nature of the iron-reducing phenomena. I n elucidating this hypothesis, the total number of bacteria, capable of reducing iron (111) oxide, was estimated in a gley soil by determining their Most Probable Kumber (COCHRAN 1950).