Although the requirement for metals is increasing, the availability of metallic ore is steadily decreasing. At the same time toxic metal-rich waste occurs in several industrial processes, often polluting ground water and contaminating the food chain. It is known that organisms such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans can be used to detoxify this waste. However, our ability to take full advantage of the value of microbial waste metal management is hampered by a lack of knowledge of the genetics and biochemistry of T. ferrooxidans. To date, there are no published procedures for the genetic transformation of this organism. An efficient transformation system will permit the genetic manipulation of T. ferrooxidans specifically to improve its metal recovery capacity. This proposal is aimed at the development of such a system. Plasmids conferring kanamycin resistance will be used as a marker to test the transforming ability of T. ferrooxidans under a variety of conditions. The successful development of a transformation system will pave the way for the genetic engineering of organisms which can be used to recover valuable metals from hazardous industrial wastes.
