Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Metabolism of microbes
• Energy conservation
•Application in biosynthesis
Edited by Dr. Harbant (April, 2012)
Energy conservation
Fueling Processes in chemoorganotrophs
◆ Chemoorganotrophs differ in the types of electron acceptors they
use in their various energy-yielding processes
◆ The process involving exogenous (external) acceptors in the
electron transport chain is termed respiration
✳ Final electron acceptor is oxygen, the process is termed aerobic
respiration
✳ Final electron acceptor is not oxygen, the process is termed
anaerobic respiration
◆ The electron transport system uses the donated electron to make
ATP via oxidative phosphorylation
◆ When the electron transport system is not used and endogenous
(internal) acceptors are employed, the process is termed
fermentation and ATP is formed via substratelevel phosphorylation
Aerobic respiration
● Six-carbon stage
– ATP + Glucose [C6] = glucose-6-phosphate [C6]
– Glucose-6-phosphate [C6] + ATP = fructose-1,6-bisphosphate [C6]
● Three-carbon stage
– Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate [C6] cleaved into glyceraldehyde-3-
phosphate [C3]
– Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate [C3] converted to pyruvate [C3] + 2 ATP +
NADH (this process occurs twice - balance the carbon atoms!!! 2 x C3 =C6)
✳ Summary of glycolysis
● 2 pyruvate molecules
● 2 ATP molecules - sum total: 2 used to begin glycolysis, 4 produced by
substrate-level phosphorylation
● 2 NADH molecules
PPP Glycolytic pathway
Pentose Phosphate Pathway (Hexose
monophosphate pathway)
✳ May be used simultaneously with glycolysis
and Enter-Doudoroff pathway
✳ Operates under either aerobic or anaerobic
conditions
✳ Important in both catabolism and
biosynthesis
Summary of PPP
Summary of pentose phosphate pathway
● NADPH formed serves as a source of electrons for
reduction of molecules during biosynthesis
● Four- and five-carbon sugars are synthesized that
will be used for a variety of purposes
● Intermediates are used to produce ATP
● Serves as a catabolic pathway for five-carbon
sugars
● More important as an anabolic pathway than as a
catabolic pathway to produce energy
Entner-Doudoroff Pathway
✳ Begins the same way as the pentose phosphate
pathway to produce glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate
✳ Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate catabolized to
pyruvate via the 3-carbon stage of glycolysis
✳ Total yield per glucose molecule
● One ATP molecule
● One NADH molecule
● One NADPH molecule
TRICARBOXYLIC ACID CYCLE
◆ Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle (Krebs Cycle, TCA Cycle, Citric Acid Cycle) is widely distributed
among microbes
✳ AcCoA [C2] condenses with oxaloacetate (OAA) [C4] to form citric acid (citrate) [C6],
the first compound of the 6-carbon stage
✳ Through a series of reactions in the six-carbon stage, citric acid [C6] loses a carbon as
CO2 to form α-ketoglutarate [C5] while generating one NADH molecule
✳ In the five-carbon stage, α-ketoglutarate [C5] loses a carbon as CO2 to form succinyl
coenzyme A (succinyl-CoA) [C4] while generating one NADH molecule