🎯 Microbial Metabolism

TARGETS

11. Bacteria and Archaea exhibit extensive, and often unique, metabolic diversity (e.g., nitrogen fixation, methane production, anoxygenic photosynthesis).  􏰀 List two differences between substrate-level phosphorylation and oxidative phosphorylation.
􏰀 Describe how aerobic respiration (or fermentation) differs from anaerobic respiration.
􏰀 State the difference between oxygenic and anoxygenic photophosphorylation.
􏰀 Given an energy source and a carbon source, determine the metabolic lifestyle of an organism (e.g., chemoheterotroph, chemolithoautotroph, photoheterotroph, or photoautotroph).		 􏰀 Given energy demands and available substrates, predict which metabolic pathways a cell could use.
􏰀 Given the major components of an electron transport chain, put them in order and explain how it could generate a proton motive force for the cell.
􏰀 Design a mechanism that would allow a bacterium to protect its nitrogenase from oxygen.
􏰀 Analyze the symbiotic relationship that some N2-fixing bacteria have with plants. Identify what the bacteria contribute and what the plant contributes.
􏰀 Describe the process of methanogenesis in terms of electron transport and energy generation.
12. The interactions of microorganisms among themselves and with their environment are determined by their metabolic abilities (e.g., quorum sensing, oxygen consumption, nitrogen transformations).  􏰀 Provide two examples of how microbial metabolism alters the surrounding physical environment.
􏰀 Define quorum sensing.		 􏰀 Give an example of and explain how microbial metabolism is important to a relevant societal issue (e.g., health and disease, bioremediation, agriculture, etc.).
􏰀 Give an example of how quorum sensing is advantageous to bacterial cells in a given environment.
􏰀 Give an example where the waste product of one microorganism serves as an important substrate for another organism (e.g., ammonia-oxidizing bacteria or ammonia-oxidizing archaea and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, hydrogen producers and methanogens, sulfide oxidizers and sulfate reducers, etc.).
24. Microbes are essential for life as we know it and the processes that support life (e.g., in biogeochemical cycles and plant and/or animal microbiota).  􏰀 Provide examples of essential microbe-microbe or microbe-host relationships.
􏰀 Describe the role of cyanobacteria in the oxygenation of the atmosphere.		 􏰀 Describe the normal microbiota and the purposes its serve in the environment and human populations.
􏰀 Predict the effect on a host organism if the normal microbiota were removed.
􏰀 Explain the role of natural microbial populations in bioremediation/decomposition/nutrient cycling.