By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 12:05:12 +0000

When I was taking microbiology and biochemistry in the late 60′s, the proton gradient was just being proposed. Biologists assumed that fermentation came first, especially as it was known that the early Earth had no free oxygen. But fermentation is enormously more complicated than respiration, and most of the fermentation pathways also double (in reverse) as synthesis pathways. Once the mechanics of respiration were known (thanks Peter Mitchell, 1961), the question of which came first still persisted. Then in the later part of the 20th Century microbiologists discovered all sort of metal-based oxidation/reduction reactions that drove proton gradients, and it was clear that respiration without oxygen was possible, and indeed common.

Comments on: Primordial Pressure Cooker

By: Bob Sykes