The 3-hydroxypropionate bicycle, also known as the 3-hydroxypropionate pathway, is a process that allows some bacteria to generate 3-hydroxypropionate using carbon dioxide.[2] It is divided into two parts or reactions. The overall reaction of the 3-hydroxypropionate pathway is 3 HCO3− + 5 ATP + 6 NADPH + 1 quinone → 1 pyruvate + 6 NADP + 1 quinoneH2 + 3 ADP + 3 phosphate + 2 AMP + 2 pyrophosphate.[3]
Malonyl-CoA, in a series of reactions, is further split into acetyl-CoA and glyoxylate. Glyoxylate is incorporated into beta-methylmalyl-coA which is then split, again through a series of reactions, to release pyruvate as well as acetate, which is used to replenish the cycle.[3]
Prevalence
This pathway has been demonstrated in Chloroflexus, a nonsulfur photosynthetic bacterium; however, other studies suggest that 3-hydroxypropionate bicycle is used by several chemotrophicarchaea.[1][4] T In E. coli3-hydroxypropionate bicycle has been studied and found to be insensitive to oxygen. This means that within the pathways there is nothing that oxygen can affect because in either part of the pathway or the oxygen is used to drive the reaction forward.[5]