ABSTRACT
It is well established that most of the known anaerobic prokaryotes perform “oxidative phosphorylation” without O2. Depending on the species and the metabolic conditions, these bacteria may use a large variety of inorganic (e.g., nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, thiosulfate, elemental sulfur, polysulfide sulfur) or organic compounds (e.g., fumarate, dimethylsulfoxide, trimethylamine-N-oxide, vinyl- or arylchlorides) as terminal electron acceptor instead of oxygen. The redox reactions with these acceptors are catalyzed by membrane-integrated electron transport chains and are coupled to the generation of an electrochemical proton potential (Δp) across the membrane. Oxidative phosphorylation in the absence of O2 is also termed “anaerobic respiration”. Oxidative phosphorylation with elemental sulfur is called “sulfur respiration”. Oxidative phosphorylation with polysulfide sulfur is called “polysulfide respiration”.
