Despite thermodynamic, bioenergetic and phylogenetic failings, the 81‐year‐old concept of
primordial soup remains central to mainstream thinking on the origin of life. But soup is …

Many bacteria in the environment have adapted to the presence of toxic heavy metals. Over
the last 30 years, this heavy metal tolerance was the subject of extensive research. The …

Although a common reaction in anaerobic environments, the conversion of formate and
water to bicarbonate and H2 (with a change in Gibbs free energy of Δ G°=+ 1.3 kJ mol− 1) …

Background Hydrogen production by fermenting bacteria such as Escherichia coli offers a
potential source of hydrogen biofuel. Because H2 production involves consumption of 2H+ …

Methanosarcina mazei belongs to the group of aceticlastic methanogens and converts
acetate into the potent greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4. The aceticlastic respiratory chain …

Hydrogen plays important, different roles in a variety of photosynthetic prokaryotes. The
variety of different hydrogenases, their catalytic sites, maturation, and genetic organization …

The termite gut spirochete, Treponema primitia, is a CO2‐reductive acetogen that is
phylogenetically distinct from other distantly related and more extensively studied acetogens …

Life was forced into being to resolve the disequilibrium between atmospheric carbon dioxide
and the reduced (electron-rich) solid surface of our planet. Metabolic pathways that …

The prokaryotic proton-translocating NADH-quinone oxidoreductase (NDH-1) is an L-
shaped membrane-bound enzyme that contains 14 subunits (NuoA− NuoN or Nqo1 …

In this work the anaerobic syntrohic oxidation of the fatty acid acetate and the biogenic
amine cadaverine (1, 5-diaminopentane) by two different defined cocultures was …