Figure 1.

Taurine respiration by Bilophila wadsworthia. B. wadsworthia respires taurine in 3 enzymatic steps. First, taurine is transanimated from pyruvate using the enzyme taurine:pyruvate amino transferase to produce alanine and sulfoacetaldehyde. Sulfoacetaldehyde is sulfonated with water by sulfoacetaldehyde sulfolyase to produce acetate and sulfite. Sulfite is then reduced by dissimilatory sulfite reductase to hydrogen sulfide using electron donors like hydrogen and formate. Alanine is then converted back to pyruvate using alanine dehydrogenase.