The influence of fluorine on the growth of
Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 is presented
in Fig. 1. It shows that fluorine has an apparently
negative effect on the strain. There was no obvious effect
on the strain at 5 mg/L fluorine. The apparent inhibition
was found when the concentration of fluorine increased
to 10 mg/L, and the growth of the cells was very slow
when the total fluorine was over 20 mg/L. However, this
result was not consistent with the result of LIU et al [33],
who got a very high fluorine-resistant strain (1.48 g/L).
The reason may be that the strain had adapted for a long
time in acid mine drainage containing a great deal of
fluorine. However, the strain Acidithiobacillus
ferrooxidans ATCC 23270 here was conserved in our