Facultative anaerobic bacteria

Table 1. Occvirrence of aerobic bacteria (facultative anaerobes) in red fox anal sac secretions (29,30,31)...

Lactic Acid B cteri. The lactic acid bacteria are ubiquitous in nature from plant surfaces to gastrointestinal tracts of many animals. These gram-positive facultative anaerobes convert carbohydrates (qv) to lactic acid and are used extensively in the food industry, for example, for the production of yogurt, cheese, sour dough bread, etc. The sour aromatic flavor imparted upon fermentation appears to be a desirable food trait. In addition, certain species produce a variety of antibiotics. 

Free-living bacteria are, however, used as the source of the enzyme nitrogenase, responsible for N2 fixation (1,4,26,80), for research purposes because these ate easier to culture. The enzyme is virtually identical to that from the agriculturally important thizobia. These free-living N2-fixets can be simply classified into aerobes, anaerobes, facultative anaerobes, photosynthetic bacteria, and cyanobacteria. 

Acid producers. Corrosion usually is moderate and localized. Almost all significant attack is associated with anaerobic bacteria (facultative and obhgate), as aerobic acid-producing varieties usually reside near the top of deposits and corrosion products contacting oxygenated waters. Thus, the direct effect on corrosion at metal surfaces is limited. Additionally, although acidic products may be expected to increase corrosion rates, acidity cannot be pronounced in deposits to put it simply, the deposits and corrosion products would dissolve at sufficiently acidic pH. 

Studies on 4-hydroxybenzoate decarboxylase and 3,4-hydroxybenzoate decarboxylase have been restricted to obligate anaerobic bacteria, C. hydroxy-benzoicum Aside from the obligate anaerobic microorganism, C. hydroxy-benzoicum, very recently facultative anaerobic bacteria, Enterobacter cloacae strains exhibiting high 4-hydroxybenzoate decarboxylase or... 

The occurrence of 4-hydroxybenzoate decarboxylase was also found in facultative anaerobic bacteria, E. cloacae P240, and the enzyme was purified and characterized. The activity of the cell-free extract of E. cloacae P240 was determined to be 13.7 ijumol min (mg protein) at 30°C, which was much higher than... 

Jagnow G, K Haider, P-C Ellwardt (1977) Anaerobic dechlorination and degradation of hexachlorocyclo-hexane by anaerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria. Arch Microbiol 115 285-292. 

At many sites, the subsurface environment will be anoxic or even anaerobic due to the activity of aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria in the surface layers of the soil. It is therefore essential to take into consideration the extent to which anaerobic degradation may be expected to be significant. Reactions may take place under sulfidogenic or methanogenic conditions, and the occurrence of sulfate at sites containing building material waste and the metabolic versatility of sulfate-reducing bacteria makes them particularly attractive. 

Spore formation is limited almost entirely to two genera of rodshaped bacteria Bacillus (aerobic or facultatively anaerobic), and Clostridium (anaerobic or aerotolerant). With one possible exception, the common spherical bacteria do not sporulate. Some spore-bearing species can be made to lose their ability to produce spores. When the ability to produce spores is once lost, it is seldom regained. SporMation is not a process to increase bacterial numbers because a cell rarely produces more than one spore. 

There is also a segmental distribution of the types of bacteria. Strict anaerobic species are normally confined to the oral cavity and the colon, habitats they densely colonize and predominate [1-5] (fig. 1). Bacteria indigenous to the upper respiratory tract (URT flora) and anaerobic bacteria of oral origin are swallowed with saliva and recovered from the upper gut at densities below 105 CFU/ ml. Under physiological conditions, they are considered transitory rather than indigenous to the upper gut. Facultative anaerobic bacteria are usually confined to the distal small bowel and colon, but transient species entering the gut with nutrients are occasionally recovered from the healthy upper gut at low counts. 

From the biological point of view, the effect of anaerobiosis has been characterized in purely anaerobic, facultative anaerobic, and aerobic bacteria, in yeasts, and in tissues from higher organisms [6-12], From these studies it can be deduced that almost every azo compound can be biologically reduced under anaerobic conditions [4]. Reduced flavins are produced by cytosol flavin-dependent reductases [6, 13], while quinone reductase activity located in the plasma membrane [14] and extracellular azo reductase activities [9, 15] were also observed. 

A project at the University of Arizona (FEDRIP 1996) will study microbial dehalogenation of several compounds, including chloroform. A major part of the study will focus on the facultative anaerobic bacteria Shewanella putrefaciens sp., which is known to catalyze the transformation of carbon tetrachloride to chloroform and other as yet unidentified products. The organic substrates will also contain metals. It is hoped that the end-products from the biochemical treatment can be subjected to a photolytic finishing process that will completely mineralize any remaining halogenated compounds. 

Some prokaryotes are anaerobic heterotrophs. These include the denitrifiers, sulfate reducers, and fermenters, as well as the bacteria capable of reducing metals, such as Fe(lll) to Fe(II) and Mn(lV) to Mn(II). Because the oxidized metals are present as solids, e.g., FeOOH(s), Fe203(s), and Mn02(s), these bacteria must be in direct contact with the mineral surface and have a mechanism for transferring electrons across their cell membranes. One bacterium that appears to have such a mechanism is the facultative anaerobe Shewanella oneidensis, which produces a specific protein on its outer membrane only under anaerobic conditions when it is in direct contact with a suitable... 

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