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The Anaerobic Way of Life

  • Reference work entry
The Prokaryotes

1 Introduction

Molecular oxygen in appreciable amounts is found only in those areas on earth that are in direct contact with air or are inhabited by organisms carrying out oxygenic photosynthesis. The solubility of oxygen in water is low. In equilibrium with air at 1.013 bar and at 20°C, pure water will contain approximately 9 mg/liter of dissolved oxygen. In aqueous systems, aerobic organisms rapidly consume dissolved oxygen, so that deeper layers of many waters and soils (especially if they are rich in organic compounds), as well as mud and sludge, are practically anaerobic. Nevertheless, these areas are inhabited by numerous organisms that fulfill the important ecological role of converting insoluble organic material to soluble compounds and gases that can circulate back into aerobic regions. Other important anaerobic habitats are the rumen, the intestinal tract, and man-made anaerobic digestors of sewage treatment plants.

Anaerobic prokaryotes that can live in the above-mentioned...

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Authors
  1. Ruth A. Schmitz
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  2. Rolf Daniel
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  3. Uwe Deppenmeier
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  4. Gerhard Gottschalk
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Box 196, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0312, USA

    Martin Dworkin Professor Dr. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Medical School, 299 Campus Drive, Fairchild, D039, Stanford, CA, 94305-5124, USA

    Stanley Falkow

  3. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  4. Department of Microbiology, Technical University Munich, 80290, Munich, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

  5. DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag

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Schmitz, R.A., Daniel, R., Deppenmeier, U., Gottschalk, G. (2006). The Anaerobic Way of Life. In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30742-7_4

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