Organic compounds food groups

The bugs, as the microorganisms are frequently called, can also get sick and die if they are not treated properly. They dislike rapid changes in types of food (organic compounds), pH, and temperature a pH below 6.5 or above 9.0, a salt concentration in excess of 5,000 mg/1 and the presence in any more than trace quantities (10 mg/1) of heavy metals.34 If they are killed, the only way to obtain a new group of residents for the waste-treatment system is to grow them, and this takes time. 

Surfactants (Fig. 23) represent one of the major and most versatile groups of organic compounds produced around the world [314]. Their main uses are industrial, 54% (cleaning products, food, and industrial processing), household, 29% (laundry, dishwashing, etc.) and personal care, 17% (soaps, shampoos, cosmetics). The worldwide production in 1988 [315] was 2.8 million tons. Surfactants, natural [316,317] or synthetic, change the solubility and physicochemical state of other environmental micro-constituents [318, 319] and influence their accumulation and spreading at phase boundaries [320]. 

Water. Although often omitted from lists of essential nutrients, water is the universal biological solvent in which the biochemical reactions of each cell occur. Most living organisms contain far more water than any other compound or group of compounds. Although most insects are 70-80% water, their food may vary from 1 to over 90% water. Stored-product Insects have remarkable abilities to conserve water, whereas phytophagous insects may suffer deleterious effects from low dietary moisture. 

The transfer of phosphoryl groups is a central feature of metabolism. Equally important is another kind of transfer, electron transfer in oxidation-reduction reactions. These reactions involve the loss of electrons by one chemical species, which is thereby oxidized, and the gain of electrons by another, which is reduced. The flow of electrons in oxidation-reduction reactions is responsible, directly or indirectly, for all work done by living organisms. In nonphotosynthetic organisms, the sources of electrons are reduced compounds (foods) in photosynthetic organisms, the initial electron donor is a chemical species excited by the absorption of light. The path of electron flow in metabolism is complex. Electrons move from various metabolic intermediates to specialized electron carriers in enzyme-catalyzed reactions. 

A compound containing a carboxyl group is known as a carboxylic acid, or organic acid. Many pheromones contain carboxyl functional groups. Pheromones are organic compounds used by animals to communicate with each other. When an ant finds food, it leaves behind a pheromone trail that other ants in its colony can follow to get to the food source. 

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