Hydrogen Metabolism and the Evolution of Biological Respiration

Abstract

Electron transport phosphorylation (ETP), one of three known biochemical mechanisms for conserving energy, couples oxidation-reduction reactions to the translocation of ions across cell membranes (Table 1). Although we tend to associate ETP with high potential acceptors such as oxygen, it also comes into play using low potential acceptors. In such cases, energy can accumulate through sequential translocation of ions across cellular membranes through low-energy- yielding reactions.