Organic lactate-forming bacteria

Slime-Forming Bacteria. Several forms of bacteria produce a slimy capsule under certain environmental conditions. These organisms are heterotrophic, that is, they obtain their energy from organic sources such as sodium lactate. The reaction is... 

These bacteria, instead of producing molecular 02, form elemental sulfur as the oxidation product of H2S. (They further oxidize the S to SOf A) Other photosynthetic bacteria use organic compounds such as lactate as electron donors ... 

The bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum and its closest allies are unusual in that they are aerobic organisms but do not produce a superoxide dismutase. This bacterium instead accumulates Mn(II) to an intramolecular level on the order of 25 mM (150-152). In vitro studies indicated that Mn(II) formed a complex with lactate which possessed significant superoxide activity (153). These bacteria are additionally unable to produce heme and, consequently, when grown in the absence of heme, produce a hemeless catalase, or pseudocatalase (154-158). Unlike heme-containing catalases, the enzyme is not inhibited by cyanide or azide, and the addition of either Mn or Fe into the growth medium increased the amount of the pseudocatalase present. However, neither of the metals could be detected in partially purified enzyme assays (157). 

Some cells lack certain enzymatic steps and therefore lack certain pathways. Studies of the homo- and heterofermentative organisms are instructive in this regard. In the homofermentative lactic acid bacteria, the utilization of C Mabeled glucose to form lactate and the distribution of in the lactate suggest that the basic degradative procedure is that of the Embden-Meyerhof scheme. An observed slight randomization of... 

---