Question

A young student is troubled by the idea that a bacterium is able to control its diverse and complex metabolic activities, even though it lacks a brain. How would you explain their metabolic control?

For Microbiology

Answer 1

Bacteria controls their metabolism at every possible stage, starting at the level of gene that encodes protein and ending with alteration or modifications in the protein after it is produced. Bacteria lacks organs, even though they can control metabolism by regulation of gene expression and enzyme-feedback inhibition.

Bacteria can adjust metabolism in response to their surrounding environment through adjusting the enzyme production by gene expression and adjusting the activities of existing enzymes by feedback inhibitions. For example, when amino acid tryptophan accumulates in the cell, it shuts down the synthesis of more tryptophan by inhibiting the activities of existing enzymes.