University Duisburg-Essen

Biomining is a biotechnological process carried out in many parts of the world that exploits acid loving microorganisms to extract metals from sulphide minerals. One industrial biomining method is called ‘heap bioleaching’ where typically copper containing minerals are piled into very large heaps, acid and microorganisms are added to the top and the soluble metal is collected at the heap base.

The role of the different types of microbes in the process is to speed up metal solubilisation by oxidising
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Within the e:Bio - Innovationswettbewerb Systembiologie (Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)), the SulfoSYSBIOTECH consortium (10 partners), aim to unravel the complexity and regulation of the carbon metabolic network of the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus (optimal growth at 80°C and pH 3) in order to provide new catalysts ‘extremozymes’ for utilization in White Biotechnology.

Based on the available S. solfataricus genome scale metabolic model (Ulas et al., 2012)
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Silicon cell model for the central carbohydrate metabolism of the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus under temperature variation