Describe the Redox Tower and how it relates to bioenergetics

Describe the “Redox Tower” and how it relates to bioenergetics of microbial life. Include a list of as many electron acceptors used by microbes as you can recall.

Solution

redox tower is a tool that is used to align compounds on the basis of their reduction potential and to estimate the direction of electron flow among potential electron donors and acceptors.In order to decide whether a compound will act as a electron donor or acceptor, it is dependent on other compound in the reaction.The redox ower creates a hierarchy in which the compound with the most negative reduction potential is at the top and the compund with the most positive reduction potential is at the bottom.The redox tower is represented in the form of half reactions,with the oxidized form written on the left and the reduced form written on the right.

Microorganisms use a wide vareity of electron donor and electron acceptors to generate energy for metabolism.In the process of glycolysis ,glucose is oxidised to pyruvate along with reduction of NAD+to NADH.The top of the tower represents oxidation of glucose and the bottom the reduction of NAD+,which shows the flow of electrons in a redox reaction.

electron acceptors include, oxygen ,iron,nitrate,manganese,sulphate,carbon dioxide,tetrachloroethylene,trichloroethylene,dichloroethene,vinyl chloride.