Introduction
Facultative anaerobes are organisms able to grow in the presence or absence of molecular oxygen, i.e., under both oxic (or microoxic) and anoxic conditions (Richardson 2000). When the oxygen concentration in their environment diminishes, many bacterial and archaeal (but also some eukaryotic) microorganisms switch from adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production by aerobic respiration to either anaerobic respiration or fermentation. In anaerobic respiration a variety of alternative terminal electron acceptors can be used by facultative anaerobes. Prominent examples are nitrate, nitrite, fumarate, elemental sulfur, sulfite, or metal ions such as iron or manganese. Figure 1 depicts the corresponding electron transport network from the facultatively anaerobic bacterium Escherichia coli. Further well-studied model organisms for anaerobic respiration in facultative anaerobes belong to the bacterial genera Campylobacter...
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References
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Simon, J. (2018). Electron Transport in Facultative Anaerobes. In: Roberts, G., Watts, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Biophysics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35943-9_32-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35943-9_32-1
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