4. Zymomonas mobilis is one of the only organisms that can only metabolize gluco

Question

4. Zymomonas mobilis is one of the only organisms that can only metabolize glucose through the Entner-Doudoroff pathway and does not contain any type of electron transport chain. Instead, it utilizes ethanol fermentation. Explain the purpose of fermentation for this bacteria? b. Interestingly, the uses glucose and produces a higher concentration of ethanol at a faster rate. Standard Saccharomyces use the Embden-Meyerhof pathway for its glucose metabolism. How does this helps explain the rate of glucose utilization and ethanol production difference between the two organisms? lcohol industry has considered using Zymomonas instead of yeast in alcohol production because it

Explanation / Answer

Ans a) The bacteria Zymomonas mobilis degrades the sugars to pyruvate by entering the Entner-Doudoroff pathway. The pyruvate that is formed is fermented for production of ethanol and carbon dioxide. The fermentation purpose for the bacteria is to break down the sugars and form the ethanol that it utilises as its form of energy.

Ans b) Both the Zymomonas mobilis and Saccharomyces can be used for production of ethanol by fermenting the sugars. It uses different pathways for the process of fermentation. On sequencing the genome of the former it was found that it can be used for metabolising of sugar only by Entner-Doudoroff pathway. There are many advantages of using Zymomonas over Saccharomyces like it has higher uptake of sugar which leads to higher yield of glucose, lower production of the biomass, higher ethanol tolerance and also it does not need controlled addition of the oxygen during the process.

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