Question

Is bacteria Arthrobacter nitroguajacolicus, which is an obligate aerobe, capable of carbohydrate fermentation? What is carbohydrate fermentation and what does it have to do with oxygen class of organisms?

Answer 1

It is given that Arthrobacter is an obligate aerobe. Any bacteria, not only Arthrobacter which is an obligate aerobe will not be able to perform carbohydrate fermentation.

There are four classes of bacteria on the basis of their ability to perform respiration in the absence or presence of oxygen -

1. Obligate aerobes, which are strict aerobic and perform aerobic respiration. They can grow and reproduce in the presence of oxygen only.

2. Facultative aerobes, which are not strict aerobes. They are actually anaerobes and if there is oxygen in the medium, they switch to aerobic respiration.

3. Obligate anaerobes, which are strict anaerobes and perform anaerobic respiration. They grow and reproduce only in the absence of oxygen.

4. Facultative anaerobes, which are not strict anaerobes. They are actually aerobes and if there is no oxygen in the medium, they switch to aerobic respiration.

Carbohydrate fermentation is the type of sugar metabolism which occurs in the deficiency of oxygen. The first step in this process is glycolysis which is the breakdown of glucose into two molecules of pyruvic acid followed by fermentation. Fermentation can be lactic acid fermentation in which pyruvic acid is converted to lactic acid or alcohol fermentation in which pyruvic acid is converted to ethanol along with the release of carbon dioxide. Other types of fermentation include Acetic Acid fermentation, propionic acid fermentation, butyric acid fermentation etc.

If the given Bacteria is obligate aerobe, then according to the definition of obligate aerobes, they not able to perform carbohydrate fermentation.

Edit fermentation will be carried out by obligate anaerobes or facultative aerobes or facultative anaerobes.

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