MICROBIAL PHYSIOLOGY AND GENETICS

INTRODUCTION

 Physiology is the study of the vital life processes of organisms.

 Microbial physiology concerns the vital life processes of microorganisms

MICROBIAL NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

 All living protoplasm contains six major chemicals

 elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur
 Materials that organisms are unable to synthesize, but are required for building macromolecules
and sustaining life, are termed essential nutrients (e.g., certain essential amino acids and
essential fatty acids)

TERMS RELATING TO AN ORGANISM’S ENERGY SOURCE

 Phototrophs use light as an energy source

 Chemotrophs use either inorganic or organic chemicals as an energy source
 Chemolithotrophs use inorganic chemicals as an energy source
 Chemoorganotrophs use organic chemicals as an energy source

TERMS RELATING TO AN ORGANISM’S CARBON SOURCE

 Autotrophs use CO2 as their sole source of carbon

 Heterotrophs use organic compounds other than CO2 as carbon sources

TERMS THAT COMBINE BOTH ENERGY AND CARBON SOURCE

ECOLOGY

 The study of the interactions between living organisms and the world around them, including
their nonliving environment
 nterrelationships among the different nutritional types are of prime importance in the
functioning of the ecosystem
 Example: Phototrophs, such as algae and plants, are the producers of food and oxygen
for chemoheterotrophs, such as animals

METABOLISM

 Refers to all the chemical reactions (metabolic reactions) that occur in a cell
 Metabolic reactions are enhanced and regulated by enzymes known as metabolic enzymes
 Enzymes are biologic catalysts; they are proteins that either cause a particular chemical reaction
to occur or accelerate it
 Energy can be temporarily stored in high-energy bonds in special molecules, usually adenosine
triphosphate (ATP)
o ATP molecules are the major energy-storing or energy-carrying molecules in a cell
o ATP molecules are found in all cells because they are used to transfer energy from
energy-yielding molecules, such as glucose, to energy-requiring reactions
 Energy is required not only for metabolic pathways but also for growth, reproduction,
sporulation, and movement of the organism, as well as active transport of substances across
membranes
 Some organisms (e.g., marine dinoflagellates) use energy for bioluminescence
 Cellular mechanisms that release small amounts of energy as the cell needs it usually involve a
sequence of catabolic and anabolic reactions

METABOLIC REACTIONS

Two categories: catabolism and anabolism

 Catabolism refers to all catabolic reactions in a cell

o Involves the breaking down of larger molecules into smaller ones
o Whenever chemical bonds are broken, energy is released
o Cell’s major source of energy
 Anabolism refers to all anabolic reactions in a cell
o Involve the assembly of smaller molecules into larger molecules, requiring the
formation of bonds
o Once formed, the bonds represent stored energy
o Much of the energy released during catabolic reactions is used to drive anabolic
reactions
CATABOLISM

 Catabolic reactions release energy (by breaking bonds) and are a cell’s major source of energy
 Some energy is lost as heat in catabolic reactions
 Catabolism of glucose by aerobic respiration occurs in three phases (each is a biochemical
pathway)
 Glycolysis
 The Krebs cycle
 The electron transport chain (ETC)
(note: The first phase (glycolysis) is actually anaerobic, but the other two phases are
aerobic)
 GLYCOLYSIS