Keywords
Inorganic compounds, electron donor, extreme environments, lithic habitats
Definition
Lithotrophs are microorganisms that use inorganic compounds as electron donors to conserve energy for growth.
Overview
A lithotroph is a microorganism that uses inorganic substrates as a source of electron donors to drive energy acquisition, using either organic carbon or carbon dioxide as a source of carbon for constructing cellular materials (Ehrlich and Newman 2008). Microorganisms oxidize the electron donors to generate electrons that are channeled into electron respiratory chains to produce the energy-storing molecule, ATP. These organisms can use a variety of electron acceptors to complete the respiratory process, including oxygen, sulfate, and other compounds. Lithotroph means rock (lithos) eater (troph) and representatives are found in both the Bacterial and Archaeal domains. No multicellular organisms are currently known that are able to use inorganic compounds as an energy source,...
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References and Further Reading
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Cockell CS (2010) Life in the lithosphere, kinetics, and the prospects of life elsewhere. Phil Trans R Soc (in press)
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Cockell, C.S. (2011). Lithotroph. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_903
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_903
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