Heterotrophic oxidation

Heterotroph Oxidation of organic compounds Oxidation of organic compounds Organic compounds All higher animals, most microorganisms, nonphotosynthetic plant cells... 

Section 8.08.5.3.5). Heterotrophic oxidation of NH4 or organic-N to NO2 and NO has been observed in fungi, but bacteria are generally considered the dominant in situ source of NO in most ecosystems. The factors regulating nitrification in marine sediments were reviewed by Henriksen and Kemp (1988). 

It is still unknown how elemental sulphur is activated for further oxidation. The organisms largely responsible for the oxidation of sulphur belong to the genera Chromatium and Chlorobium. Tuttle and Jannasch (1972) suggested that heterotrophic oxidation might be... 

Carbon dioxide is produced as a result of metabolism of all heterotrophic organisms. The concentrations of CO2 in pore water of reduced sediments are therefore high. Autotrophic microorganisms consume CO2 in the oxidized part of the sediment, which can vary in depth from a meter in deep sea sediments to a few mm... 

The subsequent fate of the assimilated carbon depends on which biomass constituent the atom enters. Leaves, twigs, and the like enter litterfall, and decompose and recycle the carbon to the atmosphere within a few years, whereas carbon in stemwood has a turnover time counted in decades. In a steady-state ecosystem the net primary production is balanced by the total heterotrophic respiration plus other outputs. Non-respiratory outputs to be considered are fires and transport of organic material to the oceans. Fires mobilize about 5 Pg C/yr (Baes et ai, 1976 Crutzen and Andreae, 1990), most of which is converted to CO2. Since bacterial het-erotrophs are unable to oxidize elemental carbon, the production rate of pyroligneous graphite, a product of incomplete combustion (like forest fires), is an interesting quantity to assess. The inability of the biota to degrade elemental carbon puts carbon into a reservoir that is effectively isolated from the atmosphere and oceans. Seiler and Crutzen (1980) estimate the production rate of graphite to be 1 Pg C/yr. 

For the majority of redox enzymes, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide [NAD(H)j and its respective phosphate [NADP(H)] are required. These cofactors are prohibitively expensive if used in stoichiometric amounts. Since it is only the oxidation state of the cofactor that changes during the reaction, it may be regenerated in situ by using a second redox reaction to allow it to re-enter the reaction cycle. Usually in the heterotrophic organism-catalyzed reduction, formate, glucose, and simple alcohols such as ethanol and 2-propanol are used to transform the... 

Arsenite is also an intermediate in the fungal biomethylation of arsenic (Bentley and Chasteen 2002) and oxidation to the less toxic arsenate can be accomplished by heterotrophic bacteria including Alcaligenes faecalis. Exceptionally, arsenite can serve as electron donor for chemolithotrophic growth of an organism designated NT-26 (Santini et al. 2000), and both selenate and arsenate can be involved in dissimilation reactions as alternative electron acceptors. 

To establish the stoichiometry of the sulfide formation, Equation (6.3) must be combined with the oxidation process for the organic matter that is the actual electron donor for the heterotrophic sulfate-reducing bacteria. The procedure for the combination of the oxidation and the reduction process steps is the same as outlined in Section 2.1.3. If organic matter is considered simply as CH20, the combination of the oxidation process as depicted in Example 2.2 and the reduction reaction for sulfate shown in Equation (6.3) result in the following redox process ... 

Heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria are important participants in the restoration industry. Both types are indigenous to almost every site. The subsurface environment includes many thousands of species of microbes, which act in harmony to support each other. Waste products from one group become nutrients for another. When free oxygen is depleted, anaerobic activity increases. Thus, it is often convenient to consider microbiological activity as a series of processes resulting from bacterially mediated oxidation-reduction reactions. 

Heterotrophic activity A mode of nutrition based on the oxidation of organic matter. 

Heterotrophic mode heterotrophs obtain energy and carbon from organic substances. Thus, chemoheterotrophs obtain energy from oxidations, whereas photoheterotrophs obtain energy from photosynthesis with an organic electron donor requirement. 

Some prokaryotes are anaerobic heterotrophs. These include the denitrifiers, sulfate reducers, and fermenters, as well as the bacteria capable of reducing metals, such as Fe(lll) to Fe(II) and Mn(lV) to Mn(II). Because the oxidized metals are present as solids, e.g., FeOOH(s), Fe203(s), and Mn02(s), these bacteria must be in direct contact with the mineral surface and have a mechanism for transferring electrons across their cell membranes. One bacterium that appears to have such a mechanism is the facultative anaerobe Shewanella oneidensis, which produces a specific protein on its outer membrane only under anaerobic conditions when it is in direct contact with a suitable... 

The metabolic machinery responsible for the heterotrophic respiration reactions is contained in specialized organelles called mitochondria. These reactions occur in three stages (1) glycolysis, (2) the Krebs or tricarboxylic acid cycle, and (3) the process of oxidative phosphorylation also known as the electron transport chain. As illustrated in... 

By catalyzing the oxidation of organic matter, the redox reactions conducted by the heterotrophs serve to restore the reduced atoms in the organic compounds back to their oxidized forms. During these reactions, electrons supplied by the organic matter cause O2, NO3, SO4 , and CO2 to be reduced to H2O, N2, H2S, and CH4, respectively. The oxidation of organic matter regenerates the CO2 required for photosynthesis. 

Recent research has identified some other microbial routes for denitrification that are not heterotrophic. One, called the anammox reaction, involves the oxidation of ammonium to N2 using either nitrite or nitrate as the electron donor. The second has bacteria using Mn " to reduce nitrate to N2. As noted earlier, N2 is generated by the oxidation of ammonium using Mn02 as the electron acceptor. [Denitrification may also be supported by Fe " (aq) oxidation.] These reactions are summarized in Table 12.2. The overall consequence of these reactions is that ammonium does not accumulate in the pore waters where Mn respiration and denitrification are occurring. 

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