Oxygen Respiration by Desulfovibrio Species

作者：Heribert Cypionka · 发表于：Annual Review of Microbiology · 年份：2000 · DOI：10.1146/annurev.micro.54.1.827 · 被引用次数：385 · 研究领域：Wastewater Treatment and Nitrogen Removal、Microbial Fuel Cells and Bioremediation、Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology

Throughout the first 90 years after their discovery, sulfate-reducing bacteria were thought to be strict anaerobes. During the last 15 years, however, it has turned out that they have manifold properties that enable them to cope with oxygen. Sulfate-reducing bacteria not only survive oxygen exposure for at least days, but many of them even reduce oxygen to water. This process can be a true respiration process when it is coupled to energy conservation. Various oxygen-reducing systems are present in Desulfovibrio species. In Desulfovibrio vulgaris and Desulfovibrio desulfuricans, oxygen reduction was coupled to proton translocation and ATP conservation. In these species, the periplasmic fraction, which contains hydrogenase and cytochrome c3, was found to catalyze oxygen reduction with high rates. In Desulfovibrio gigas, a cytoplasmic rubredoxin oxidase was identified as an oxygen-reducing terminal oxidase. Generally, the same substrates as with sulfate are oxidized with oxygen. As additional electron donors, reduced sulfur compounds can be oxidized to sulfate. Sulfate-reducing bacteria are thus able to catalyze all reactions of a complete sulfur cycle. Despite a high respiration rate and energy coupling, aerobic growth of pure cultures is poor or absent. Instead, the respiration capacity appears to have a protective function. High numbers of sulfate-reducing bacteria are present in the oxic zones and near the oxic-anoxic boundaries of sediments and in stratified water bodies, m...