Phosphite oxidation by sulphate reduction

Bernhard Schink () and Michael Friedrich
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Bernhard Schink: Faculty of Biology, University of Konstanz
Michael Friedrich: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

Nature, 2000, vol. 406, issue 6791, 37-37

Abstract: Abstract Biological phosphorus occurs almost exclusively as phosphate in the redox state of + V, although a few phosphonic (+ III) and phosphinic (+ I) acids are found as secondary metabolites1 or as constituents of phosphonolipids. Here we show that a culture of a lithoautotrophic bacterium purified from marine sediments in Venice can grow by anaerobic oxidation of phosphite (+ III) to phosphate (+ V) while simultaneously reducing sulphate to hydrogen sulphide. To our knowledge, this is the first description of a redox reaction involving phosphorus in microbial energy metabolism, an activity that might have operated on the early Earth and which could represent an ancient evolutionary trait.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35017644

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