Reverse Krebs cycle

The reverse Krebs cycle (also known as the reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle, the reverse TCA cycle, or the reverse citric acid cycle, or the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle, or the reductive TCA cycle) is a sequence of chemical reactions that are used by some bacteria to produce carbon compounds from carbon dioxide and water by the use of energy-rich reducing agents as electron donors.

The reaction is the citric acid cycle run in reverse. Where the Krebs cycle takes carbohydrates and oxidizes them to CO₂ and water, the reverse cycle takes CO₂ and H₂O to make carbon compounds. This process is used by some bacteria (such as Aquificota) to synthesize carbon compounds, sometimes using hydrogen, sulfide, or thiosulfate as electron donors.^[1][2] This process can be seen as an alternative to the fixation of inorganic carbon in the reductive pentose phosphate cycle which occurs in a wide variety of microbes and higher organisms.