Reduction of Cr(VI) under Acidic Conditions by the Facultative Fe(III)-Reducing Bacterium Acidiphilium cryptum

The potential for biological reduction of Cr(VI) under acidic conditions was evaluated with the acidophilic, facultatively metal-reducing bacterium Acidiphilium cryptum strain JF-5 to explore the role of acidophilic microorganisms in the Cr cycle in low-pH environments. An anaerobic suspension of washed A. cryptum cells rapidly reduced 50 μM Cr(VI) at pH 3.2; biological reduction was detected from pH 1.7−4.7. The reduction product, confirmed by XANES analysis, was entirely Cr(III) that was associated predominantly with the cell biomass (70−80%) with the residual residing in the aqueous phase. Reduction of Cr(VI) showed a pH optimum similar to that for growth and was inhibited by 5 mM HgCl2, suggesting that the reaction was enzyme-mediated. Introduction of O2 into the reaction medium slowed the reduction rate only slightly, whereas soluble Fe(III) (as ferric sulfate) increased the rate dramatically, presumably by the shuttling of electrons from bioreduced Fe(II) to Cr(VI) in a coupled biotic−abiotic cycle. Starved cells could not reduce Cr(VI) when provided as sole electron acceptor, indicating that Cr(VI) reduction is not an energy-conserving process in A. cryptum. We speculate, rather, that Cr(VI) reduction is used here as a detoxification mechanism.