The fractions of the extracellular proteins of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans grown on two different energy substrates,elemental sulfur and ferrous sulfate,were selectively prepared with hot water treatment and distinctly shown by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis.Some protein spots with apparently higher abundance in sulfur energy substrate than in ferrous sulfate energy substrate were identified by using MALDI-TOF/TOF.Based on peptide mass fingerprints and bioinformatical analysis,the extracellular proteins were classified according to their functions as conjugal transfer protein,pilin,vacJ lipoprotein,polysaccharide deacetylase family protein,Ser/Thr protein phosphatase family protein and hypothetical proteins.Several extracellular proteins were found abundant in thiol groups and with CXXC functional motif,these proteins may be directly involved in the sulfur activation by use of their thiol group (Pr-SH) to bond the elemental sulfur.