Diversity of Anaerobic Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes: Breaking Long-Established Dogmas

Abstract

AbstractIn the last two decades, a number of novel anaerobic processes were discovered in the prokaryotic world that have profoundly changed our views about the metabolic possibilities in the absence of molecular oxygen. These include the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium with nitrite as electron acceptor (“the ‘anammox’ process”), anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled with sulfate reduction using “reverse methanogenesis,” and anaerobic methane oxidation with reduction of nitrite, a process in which a methanotroph produces its own molecular oxygen needed for the methane monooxygenase reaction by the activity of a nitric oxide dismutase.KeywordsMolecular OxygenAnammox BacteriumBenthic ForaminiferaAnaerobic RespirationMethane HydrateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.