Biology[edit]

 Cellular respiration, the process in which nutrients are converted into useful energy in a
cell
o Anaerobic respiration, cellular respiration without oxygen
o Maintenance respiration, the amount of cellular respiration required for an
organism to maintain itself in a constant state
 Respiration (physiology), transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide between cells and the
external environment
o Respiratory system, the anatomical system of an organism used for respiration
o Breathing, passing air in and out through respiratory organs
o Aquatic respiration, animals extracting oxygen from water
o Artificial respiration, the act of simulating respiration, which provides for the
overall exchange of gases in the body by pulmonary ventilation, external respiration and
internal respiration
o Cheyne–Stokes respiration, an abnormal pattern of breathing characterized by
progressively deeper and sometimes faster breathing, followed by a gradual decrease
that results in a temporary stop in breathing called an apnea
 Respiration, a journal by Karger Publishers

Ecology[edit]
 Carbon respiration, a concept used in calculating carbon (as CO
2)flux occurring in the atmosphere
 Ecosystem respiration, measurement of gross carbon dioxide production by all
organisms in an ecosystem
 Root respiration, exchange of gases between plant roots and the atmosphere
 Photorespiration, enzymatic combination of RuBP with oxygen

Anaerobic respiration
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Not to be confused with Fermentation.

Anaerobic respiration is respiration using electron acceptors other than molecular

oxygen (O2). Although oxygen is not the final electron acceptor, the process still uses
a respiratory electron transport chain.[1]
In aerobic organisms undergoing respiration, electrons are shuttled to an electron
transport chain, and the final electron acceptor is oxygen. Molecular oxygen is a
high-energy [2] oxidizing agent and, therefore, is an excellent electron acceptor.
In anaerobes, other less-oxidizing substances such
as nitrate (NO3−), fumarate, sulfate (SO42−), or sulfur (S) are used. These terminal
electron acceptors have smaller reduction potentials than O2, meaning that less
energy is released per oxidized molecule. Therefore, anaerobic respiration is less
efficient than aerobic.
 Contents

 1As compared with fermentation

 2Ecological importance
 3Economic relevance
 4Examples of electron acceptors in respiration
 5See also
 6Further reading
 7References

As compared with fermentation[edit]

Anaerobic cellular respiration and fermentation generate ATP in very different ways,
and the terms should not be treated as synonyms. Cellular respiration
(both aerobic and anaerobic) utilizes highly reduced chemical compounds such
as NADH and FADH2 (for example produced during glycolysis and the citric acid cycle)
to establish an electrochemical gradient (often a proton gradient) across a
membrane. This results in an electrical potential or ion concentration difference
across the membrane. The reduced chemical compounds are oxidized by a series of
respiratory integral membrane proteins with sequentially increasing reduction
potentials, with the final electron acceptor being oxygen (in aerobic respiration) or
another chemical substance (in anaerobic respiration). A proton motive
force drives protons down the gradient (across the membrane) through the proton
channel of ATP synthase. The resulting current drives ATP synthesis from ADP and
inorganic phosphate.
Fermentation, in contrast, does not utilize an electrochemical gradient. Fermentation
instead only uses substrate-level phosphorylation to produce ATP. The electron
acceptor NAD+ is regenerated from NADH formed in oxidative steps of the fermentation
pathway by the reduction of oxidized compounds. These oxidized compounds are
often formed during the fermentation pathway itself, but may also be external. For
example, in homofermentative lactic acid bacteria, NADH formed during the
oxidation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate is oxidized back to NAD+ by the reduction
of pyruvate to lactic acid at a later stage in the pathway. In yeast, acetaldehyde is
reduced to ethanol to regenerate NAD+.
There are two important anaerobic microbial methane formation pathways,
through carbon dioxide / bicarbonate (HCO3−) reduction (respiration) or acetate
fermentation.[3]

Ecological importance[edit]
Anaerobic respiration is a critical component of the global nitrogen, iron, sulfur,
and carbon cycles through the reduction of the oxyanions of nitrogen, sulfur, and
carbon to more-reduced compounds. The biogeochemical cycling of these
compounds, which depends upon anaerobic respiration, significantly impacts
the carbon cycle and global warming. Anaerobic respiration occurs in many
environments, including freshwater and marine sediments, soil, subsurface aquifers,
deep subsurface environments, and biofilms. Even environments, such as soil, that
contain oxygen also have micro-environments that lack oxygen due to the slow
diffusion characteristics of oxygen gas.
An example of the ecological importance of anaerobic respiration is the use of nitrate
as a terminal electron acceptor, or dissimilatory denitrification, which is the main
route by which fixed nitrogen is returned to the atmosphere as molecular nitrogen
gas.[4] The denitrification process is also very important in host-microbe interactions.
Similar to mitochondria in oxygen-respiring microorganisms, some single-cellular
anaerobic ciliates use denitrifying endosymbionts to gain energy. [5] Another example
is methanogenesis, a form of carbon-dioxide respiration, that is used to
produce methane gas by anaerobic digestion. Biogenic methane is used as a
sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. On the negative side, uncontrolled
methanogenesis in landfill sites releases large volumes of methane into the
atmosphere, where it acts as a powerful greenhouse gas.[6] Sulfate
respiration produces hydrogen sulfide, which is responsible for the characteristic
'rotten egg' smell of coastal wetlands and has the capacity to precipitate heavy metal
ions from solution, leading to the deposition of sulfidic metal ores.[7]

Economic relevance[edit]
Dissimilatory denitrification is widely used in the removal of nitrate and nitrite from
municipal wastewater. An excess of nitrate can lead to eutrophication of waterways
into which treated water is released. Elevated nitrite levels in drinking water can lead
to problems due to its toxicity. Denitrification converts both compounds into harmless
nitrogen gas.[8]

Anaerobic Denitrification (ETC System)

English: The model above shows the process of anaerobic respiration through denitrification, which uses
nitrogen (in the form of nitrate, NO3−) as the electron acceptor. NO3− goes through respiratory
dehydrogenase and reduces through each step from the ubiquinose through the bc1 complex through the
ATP synthase protein as well. Each reductase loses oxygen through each step so that the final product of
anaerobic respiration is N2.

1. Cytoplasm
2. Periplasm Compare to the aerobic electron transport chain.

Specific types of anaerobic respiration are also critical in bioremediation, which uses
microorganisms to convert toxic chemicals into less-harmful molecules to clean up
contaminated beaches, aquifers, lakes, and oceans. For example,
toxic arsenate or selenate can be reduced to less toxic compounds by various
anaerobic bacteria via anaerobic respiration. The reduction of chlorinated chemical
pollutants, such as vinyl chloride and carbon tetrachloride, also occurs through
anaerobic respiration.
Anaerobic respiration is useful in generating electricity in microbial fuel cells, which
employ bacteria that respire solid electron acceptors (such as oxidized iron) to
transfer electrons from reduced compounds to an electrode. This process can
simultaneously degrade organic carbon waste and generate electricity. [9]