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Bacterial Sulfate Reduction: Current Status and Possible Origin

  • Chapter
Early Organic Evolution

Abstract

Recent studies on the dissimilatory sulfate-reducing bacteria should help in evaluating their role(s) in ancient geochemical events. As a group, the bacteria are versatile, varied and genetically diverse, and can thrive under a wide range of physico-chemical and nutritional conditions. Discoveries of hydrocarbonutilizing sulfate reducers, and of organisms that grow above 80 °C, rebut claims that sulfide formation in, for example, oil fields and Mississippi Valley type environments, must of necessity be abiological. In modern anoxic environments, sulfate-reducing bacteria are responsible for a significant, and in some cases the major part of organic remineralization of organic matter.

Other anaerobic bacteria have been studied that require one or more less oxidized sulfur compound (e.g. thiosulfate, sulfite and elemental sulfur) as a terminal electron acceptor. These compounds are also reduced by some sulfate reducers. Based on this information a possible scenario for the evolution of bacterial sulfate reduction is presented which involves the sequential development of sulfur reduction, thiosulfate/sulfite reduction, anaerobic disproportionation of thiosulfate to sulfide and sulfate, and finally sulfate reduction. Comparative biochemical evidence suggests that sulfate reduction may have arisen in the earliest stages of biological evolution.

In this work the term sulfate (sulfur) reduction is reserved for dissimilatory reduction (sometimes called sulfate/ sulfur respiration), where inorganic sulfur is an electron acceptor in energy-yielding reactions, as distinct from assimilatory reduction which supplies reduced sulfur for the synthesis of essential sulfur-containing organic molecules.

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  1. P. A. Trudinger

    Present address: , 144 Dryandra St., O’Connor, ACT, 2601, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Continental Geology, Bureau of Mineral Resources, GPO Box 378, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    P. A. Trudinger

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IGCP Project 157, Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie (Otto-Hahn-Institut), Saarstr. 23, W-6500, Mainz, Germany

    Manfred Schidlowski (Chairman) (Chairman)

  2. Biological Science Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Stjepko Golubic

  3. Dept. of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8208, USA

    Michael M. Kimberley

  4. Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, S.A., 5001, Australia

    David M. McKirdy Sr. (Lecturer) (Lecturer)

  5. Division of Continental Geology, Bureau of Mineral Resources, GPO Box 378, Canberra, A.C.T., 2601, Australia

    Philip A. Trudinger

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Trudinger, P.A. (1992). Bacterial Sulfate Reduction: Current Status and Possible Origin. In: Schidlowski, M., Golubic, S., Kimberley, M.M., McKirdy, D.M., Trudinger, P.A. (eds) Early Organic Evolution. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76884-2_28

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