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Diversity of Anaerobic Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes: Breaking Long-Established Dogmas

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Anoxia

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 21))

Abstract

In the last two decades, a number of novel anaerobic processes were discovered in the prokaryotic world that have profoundly changed our views about the metabolic possibilities in the absence of molecular oxygen. These include the anaerobic oxidation of ammonium with nitrite as electron acceptor (“the ‘anammox’ process”), anaerobic oxidation of methane coupled with sulfate reduction using “reverse methanogenesis,” and anaerobic methane oxidation with reduction of nitrite, a process in which a methanotroph produces its own molecular oxygen needed for the methane monooxygenase reaction by the activity of a nitric oxide dismutase.

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Correspondence to Aharon Oren .

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Oren, A. (2012). Diversity of Anaerobic Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes: Breaking Long-Established Dogmas. In: Altenbach, A., Bernhard, J., Seckbach, J. (eds) Anoxia. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1896-8_3

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