Anaerobic respiration

Anaerobic respiration is respiration using electron acceptors other than molecular oxygen (O2). Although oxygen is not the final
electron acceptor, the process still uses a respiratory electron transport chain.[1]

In aerobic organisms undergoing respiration, electrons are shuttled to an electron transport chain, and the final electron acceptor
is oxygen. Molecular oxygen is a highly oxidizing agent and, therefore, is an excellent electron acceptor. In anaerobes, other less-
oxidizing substances such as sulphate (SO42−), nitrate (NO3−), sulphur (S), or fumarate are used. These terminal electron
acceptors have smaller reduction potentials than O2, meaning that less energy is released per oxidized molecule. Therefore,
generally speaking, anaerobic respiration is less efficient than aerobic.

Contents
As compared with fermentation
Ecological importance
Economic relevance
Examples of respiration
See also
References

As compared with fermentation

There are two important microbial methane formation pathways, through carbonate reduction (respiration), and acetate
fermentation.[2]

Cellular respiration (both aerobic and anaerobic) utilizes highly reduced chemical compounds such as NADH and FADH2 (for
example produced during glycolysis and the citric acid cycle) to establish an electrochemical gradient (often a proton gradient)
across a membrane, resulting in an electrical potential or ion concentration difference across the membrane. The reduced
chemical compounds are oxidized by a series of respiratory integral membrane proteins with sequentially increasing reduction
potentials with the final electron acceptor being oxygen (in aerobic respiration) or another chemical substance (in anaerobic
respiration). A proton motive force drives protons down the gradient (across the membrane) through the proton channel of ATP
synthase. The resulting current drives ATP synthesis from ADP and inorganic phosphate.

Fermentation, in contrast, does not utilize an electrochemical gradient. Fermentation instead only uses substrate-level
phosphorylation to produce ATP. The electron acceptor NAD+ is regenerated from NADH formed in oxidative steps of the
fermentation pathway by the reduction of oxidized compounds. These oxidized compounds are often formed during the
fermentation pathway itself, but may also be external. For example, in homofermentative lactic acid bacteria, NADH formed
during the oxidation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate is oxidized back to NAD+ by the reduction of pyruvate to lactic acid at a
later stage in the pathway. In yeast, acetaldehyde is reduced to ethanol to regenerate NAD+. The two processes thus generate ATP
in very different ways, and the terms should not be treated as synonyms.

Ecological importance
Anaerobic respiration is a critical component of the global nitrogen, iron, sulfur, and carbon cycles through the reduction of the
oxyanions of nitrogen, sulfur, and carbon to more-reduced compounds. The biogeochemical cycling of these compounds, which
depends upon anaerobic respiration, significantly impacts the carbon cycle and global warming. Anaerobic respiration occurs in
many environments, including freshwater and marine sediments, soil, subsurface aquifers, deep subsurface environments, and
biofilms. Even environments, such as soil, that contain oxygen also have micro-environments that lack oxygen due to the slow
diffusion characteristics of oxygen gas.

An example of the ecological importance of anaerobic respiration is the use of nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor, or
dissimilatory denitrification, which is the main route by which fixed nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere as molecular nitrogen
gas.[3] Another example is methanogenesis, a form of carbonate respiration, that is used to produce methane gas by anaerobic
digestion. Biogenic methane is used as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. On the negative side, uncontrolled methanogenesis
in landfill sites releases large volumes of methane into the atmosphere, where it acts as a powerful greenhouse gas.[4] Sulfate
respiration produces hydrogen sulfide, which is responsible for the characteristic 'rotten egg' smell of coast wetlands and has the
capacity to precipitate heavy metal ions from solution, leading to the deposition of sulfidic metal ores.[5]

Economic relevance
Dissimilatory denitrification is widely used in the removal of nitrate and nitrite from municipal wastewater. An excess of nitrate
can lead to eutrophication of waterways into which treated water is released. Elevated nitrite levels in drinking water can lead to
problems due to its toxicity. Denitrification converts both compounds into harmless nitrogen gas.[6]

Specific types of anaerobic respiration are also critical in bioremediation, which

uses microorganisms to convert toxic chemicals into less-harmful molecules to
clean up contaminated beaches, aquifers, lakes, and oceans. For example, toxic
arsenate or selenate can be reduced to less toxic compounds by various
anaerobic bacteria via anaerobic respiration. The reduction of chlorinated
chemical pollutants, such as vinyl chloride and carbon tetrachloride, also occurs
through anaerobic respiration.

Anaerobic respiration is useful in generating electricity in microbial fuel cells, Anaerobic Denitrification (ETC
which employ bacteria that respire solid electron acceptors (such as oxidized System)
iron) to transfer electrons from reduced compounds to an electrode. This process
can simultaneously degrade organic carbon waste and generate electricity.[7] English: The model above shows the
process of anaerobic respiration
through denitrification which takes
Examples of respiration place in some bacteria. The process
shown takes place in the plasma
membrane of prokaryotes. NO3 goes
through respiratory dehydrogenase
and reduces through each step from
the Ubiquinose through the bc1
complex through the ATP Synthase
protein as well. Each reductase loses
oxygen through each step so that the
final product of anaerobic respiration
is N2.

1. Cytoplasm
2. Periplasm
 Electron
Type Lifestyle Products Eo' [V] Example organisms
acceptor
obligate
aerobic aerobes and eukaryotes and aerobic
O2 H2O, CO2 + 0.82
respiration facultative prokaryotes
anaerobes
Organisms within the order
facultative
Desulfuromonadales (such as
anaerobes
iron reduction Fe(III) Fe(II) + 0.75 Geobacter, Geothermobacter,
and obligate
Geopsychrobacter, Pelobacter)
anaerobes
and Shewanella species [8]
facultative
anaerobes Desulfuromonadales and
manganese Mn(IV) Mn(II)
and obligate Shewanella species [8]
anaerobes
facultative
anaerobes
cobalt reduction Co(III) Co(II) Geobacter sulfurreducens
and obligate
anaerobes
facultative
uranium anaerobes Geobacter metallireducens,
U(VI) U(IV)
reduction and obligate Shewanella oneidensis
anaerobes
nitrate reduction facultative Paracoccus denitrificans,
nitrate NO3− nitrite NO2− + 0.40
(denitrification) anaerobes Escherichia coli
fumarate facultative
fumarate succinate + 0.03 Escherichia coli
respiration anaerobes
Many Deltaproteobacteria
sulfate species in the orders
sulfate obligate
sulfide HS− - 0.22 Desulfobacterales,
respiration anaerobes SO42−
Desulfovibrionales, and
Syntrophobacterales
methanogenesis
carbon
(carbonate methanogens methane CH4 - 0.25 Methanosarcina barkeri
dioxide CO2
reduction)
facultative
sulfur respiration anaerobes
sulfur S0 sulfide HS− - 0.27 Desulfuromonadales
(sulfur reduction) and obligate
anaerobes
acetogenesis
obligate carbon
(carbonate acetate - 0.30 Acetobacterium woodii
anaerobes dioxide CO2
reduction)
Halide ions
facultative halogenated
and
anaerobes organic + 0.25– Dehalococcoides and
dehalorespiration dehalogenated
and obligate compounds + 0.60[9] Dehalobacter species
anaerobes R-X compound X−
+ R-H

See also
Hydrogenosomes and mitosomes
Anaerobic digestion
Microbial fuel cell
Standard electrode potential (data page)
 Table of standard reduction potentials for half-reactions important in biochemistry

References
1. Slonczewski, Joan L.; Foster, John W. (2011). Microbiology : An Evolving Science (2nd ed.). New York: W.W.
Norton. p. 166. ISBN 9780393934472.
2. Sapart; et al. (2017). "The origin of methane in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf unraveled with triple isotope
analysis" (http://www.biogeosciences.net/14/2283/2017). Biogeosciences. 14 (9): 2283–2292. doi:10.5194/bg-14-
2283-2017 (https://doi.org/10.5194%2Fbg-14-2283-2017).
3. Simon, Jörg; Klotz, Martin G. (2013-02-01). "Diversity and evolution of bioenergetic systems involved in microbial
nitrogen compound transformations". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics. The evolutionary
aspects of bioenergetic systems. 1827 (2): 114–135. doi:10.1016/j.bbabio.2012.07.005 (https://doi.org/10.1016%
2Fj.bbabio.2012.07.005). PMID 22842521 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22842521).
4. Bogner, Jean; Pipatti, Riitta; Hashimoto, Seiji; Diaz, Cristobal; Mareckova, Katarina; Diaz, Luis; Kjeldsen, Peter;
Monni, Suvi; Faaij, Andre (2008-02-01). "Mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions from waste: conclusions
and strategies from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. Working
Group III (Mitigation)" (http://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/mitigation-of-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-was
te-conclusions-and-strategies-from-the-intergovernmental-panel-on-climate-change-ipcc-fourth-assessment-repo
rt(526c2171-5a3b-4099-8375-9ebb414e18cc).html). Waste Management & Research. 26 (1): 11–32.
doi:10.1177/0734242x07088433 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0734242x07088433). ISSN 0734-242X (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/issn/0734-242X). PMID 18338699 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18338699).
5. Pester, Michael; Knorr, Klaus-Holger; Friedrich, Michael W.; Wagner, Michael; Loy, Alexander (2012-01-01).
"Sulfate-reducing microorganisms in wetlands - fameless actors in carbon cycling and climate change" (https://w
ww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3289269). Frontiers in Microbiology. 3: 72. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2012.00072
(https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffmicb.2012.00072). ISSN 1664-302X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1664-302X).
PMC 3289269 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3289269). PMID 22403575 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/22403575).
6. Nancharaiah, Y. V.; Venkata Mohan, S.; Lens, P. N. L. (2016-09-01). "Recent advances in nutrient removal and
recovery in biological and bioelectrochemical systems". Bioresource Technology. 215: 173–185.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.03.129 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.biortech.2016.03.129). ISSN 1873-2976 (https://
www.worldcat.org/issn/1873-2976). PMID 27053446 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27053446).
7. Xu, Bojun; Ge, Zheng; He, Zhen (2015-05-15). "Sediment microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment:
challenges and opportunities" (http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=C5EW00020C). Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. 1 (3):
279–284. doi:10.1039/c5ew00020c (https://doi.org/10.1039%2Fc5ew00020c). ISSN 2053-1419 (https://www.worl
dcat.org/issn/2053-1419).
8. Richter, Katrin; Schicklberger, Marcus; Gescher, Johannes (2012-02-01). "Dissimilatory reduction of extracellular
electron acceptors in anaerobic respiration" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3273014). Applied
and Environmental Microbiology. 78 (4): 913–921. doi:10.1128/AEM.06803-11 (https://doi.org/10.1128%2FAEM.
06803-11). ISSN 1098-5336 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1098-5336). PMC 3273014 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pmc/articles/PMC3273014). PMID 22179232 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22179232).
9. Holliger, C.; Wohlfarth, G.; Diekert, G. (1998). "Reductive dechlorination in the energy metabolism of anaerobic
bacteria" (http://doc.rero.ch/record/295119/files/22-5-383.pdf) (PDF). FEMS Microbiology Reviews. 22 (5): 383.
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