Immunological methods for the quantitation of the industrially important bioleaching microorganisms.

To monitor the levels of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans in bioleaching operations, we have developed a specific and very sensitive dot-immunobinding assay. Polyclonal antisera against whole T. ferrooxidans cells was used, and the bacteria-antibody reaction was visualized by employing either 125I-labeled or peroxidase-conjugated protein A or 125I-labeled or peroxidase-conjugated goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G. A minimum of 10(3) cells per dot could be easily detected. Therefore, the method allows the sensitive, and specific simultaneous processing of numerous samples in a short time.