The genome sequences of two strains of H. pylori have undoubtedly given impetus to studies of the respiratory metabolism of this microaerophile. Studies of the respiration of its close relative Campylobacter are at a similar stage of development, again as the result of recent genome sequencing. In H. pylori, genomics has in many cases confirmed biochemical information but has raised many new questions. Chief among these are the nature of the biosynthetic pathways leading to menaquinone, the function of the predicted anaerobic respiratory pathways, and the relative roles of NADH and NADPH in delivering reducing equivalents to the respiratory chain. The apparent lack of gene regulators appears consistent with the specialized niches occupied by the bacterium in vivo and its fastidious behavior in laboratory culture.
Copyright © 2001, ASM Press.