ABSTRACT
Oxidation of organic compounds can be carried out by insertion of one or both atoms of oxygen, or by the oxygen from water. Electron acceptors other than oxygen may be used, generally under anaerobic conditions: they include a range of oxyanions and some metal cations and oxyanions. Dehydrogenation is used here to encompass both desaturation, and reactions in which an atom of oxygen from water is used. Reductases carry out reactions ranging from the simple reduction of nitrate to ammonia to the complex reactions involved in anaerobic phenol dehydroxylation and aromatic ring reduction. Examples of all these are given as illustration.
