Microbial energetics.

Abstract

An understanding of the mechanisms by which bacteria derive their energy is clearly important for the prediction of growth yields. Bacteria can synthesize ATP by a variety of routes, by fermentation, by oxidative phosphorylation, and possibly by the excretion of metabolic end products. The bacterium Escherichia coli has been studied extensively and a great deal is now known about the different membrane-bound multi-enzyme complexes that are responsible for oxidative phosphorylation. The efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation can vary not only between different bacteria that have adapted to particular ecological niches but also in an individual bacterium grown under different conditions or modified genetically by mutation with respect to its parent. Clearly, the concept that bacteria always grow with maximum thermodynamic efficiency is erroneous and it is important, therefore, to be able to assess the efficiency of energy conversion as well as the biochemical and genetical factors that regulate the physiological expression of energy-yielding reactions if they are to be manipulated by the investigator.