Abstract
Life on the earth is dependent on the balanced recycling of various elements. Well-known examples are the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles. Although these cycles are often discussed separately, they are, in fact, closely linked. This is due not only to the fact that organic matter contains these elements, but also to the role that nitrate or sulfate can play in replacing oxygen as an electron acceptor for the mineralization of organic compounds. Thus, during the breakdown of organic matter, nitrate is reduced to ammonia or nitrogen, and sulfate to sulfide. Both the ammonia and the sulfide can be reoxidized. Since this chapter is mainly concerned with the ecology of bacteria involved in the sulfur cycle, a brief discussion of this cycle is appropriate (Pfennig and Widdel, 1982; Kuenen, 1975; Trudinger, 1982). Sulfate serves as the sulfur source for the biosynthesis of organic sulfur compounds by plants and microorganisms using the process known as assimilatory sulfate reduction (Fig. 1). In biological materials, sulfur is usually present in its most reduced form (e.g., as sulfide in amino acids such as cysteine). During the decomposition of this material under aerobic conditions, the organic sulfide is initially oxidized and subsequently released as sulfate.
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Kuenen, J.G., Robertson, L.A., Van Gemerden, H. (1985). Microbial Interactions among Aerobic and Anaerobic Sulfur-Oxidizing Bacteria. In: Marshall, K.C. (eds) Advances in Microbial Ecology. Advances in Microbial Ecology, vol 8. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9412-3_1
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