CO2 utilizing microbes - A comprehensive review

CO2 fixing microbes are the species primarily engaged in complexing the inorganic carbon dioxide to organic carbon compounds. There are many microorganisms from archaeal and bacterial domain that can fix carbon dioxide through six known CO2 fixing pathways. These organisms are ubiquitous and can survive in wide range of aerobic and anaerobic habitats. This review focuses on the prior research, that has been conducted in this field and presents a summarized overview of all the mechanisms (along with their genes and enzymes) used by these microbes for CO2 incorporation. In addition, this review provides a better understanding of diversity and taxonomy of CO2 fixing microorganisms. The information presented here will motivate researchers to further explore the diversity of CO2 fixing microorganisms as well as to decipher the underlying mechanisms of CO2 utilization. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.