Hydrogen production by photosynthetic bacteria

Abstract

Photosynthetic bacteria utilize hydrogen as electron donor for autotrophic CO₂ assimilation. Many of these organisms also evolve hydrogen under dark anaerobic conditions and, in large quantities, anaerobically in the light in the absence of ammonia and molecular nitrogen. Hydrogen photoproduction in photosynthetic bacteria is largely or completely associated with the action of nitrogenase. It is not inhibited by CO, an inhibitor of hydrogenase and is dependent on ATP. The conventional hydrogenase catalyzes the reversible reaction H₂⇄2H⁺+2e^-.It seems however that in photosynthetic bacteria this enzyme catalyzes mainly hydrogen uptake in vivo. It has been suggested that a function of hydrogenase is to reutilize the hydrogen which is evolved as a byproduct of the nitrogenase reaction, retaining reducing equivalents for N₂ or CO₂ reduction¹. In contrast to aerobic bacteria, energy conservation in a Knallgas reaction is not possible for photosynthetic bacteria growing anaerobically in the light².