Cellulolytic organisms, cellulose utilization

A summary of the key information has been compiled on the anaerobic and aerobic bacteria discussed above. Comparison of the substrates for growth of these organisms (Table I) show that all utilize cellobiose and various forms of cellulose. The two species belonging to Bacteroides have different specificity for substrates, while those for Ruminococcus, Cellulomonas and Thermomonospora were the same. Table I also allows comparison of the behavior of the 13 species of cellulolytic bacteria toward cellobiose. More variability is noted in this regard and no correlation between induction/repression can be made with the mechanism of cellobiose degradation. 

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