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Lab Report

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The metabolic activities of microorganism are frequently used to identify bacteria species. There are four useful reactions that are commonly used to examine several metabolic activities of microorganism which are carbohydrate fermentation test, Voges-Proskauer test, Methyl Red test and Citrate utilization test. The first test involved in this this experiment is the carbohydrate fermentation test. Fermentation is a metabolic process that performed by almost all types of bacteria. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which is the ultimate energy source of the organism is produce. In order to produce ATP for their biological processes such as growth and reproduction, the bacteria will utilize the nutrients in their environment. The enzyme systems in …show more content…

In order to have the ability to degrade complex carbohydrates, the bacteria should possess the enzymes that can cleave the glycosidic bonds between the sugar units. The characteristics feature of the enzyme production enables the bacteria to use diverse carbohydrates and this aided in the identification of unknown bacteria (Carbohydrate Fermentation Test, 2015). Carbohydrate fermentation tests detect the ability of microorganisms to ferment a specific carbohydrate. Differentiation among the bacterial group or species can be done by using fermentation patterns. During the fermentation process, the final electron acceptor is the organic substrate. An acid or acid with gas production is the end-product of the carbohydrate fermentation test. The end-product depends on the organisms involved in the fermentation reaction, the enzyme involved, the substrate being fermented and environmental factors such as temperature and pH. Common end-products of bacterial fermentation include lactic acid, acetic acid, formic acid, butyl alcohol, butyric acid, acetone, ethyl alcohol, hydrogen and carbon …show more content…

The ability of bacteria to utilize sodium citrate can be determine by using Citrate utlilization test as its only carbon source and inorganic (NH4H2PO4) is the sole fixed nitrogen source. Simmon’s citrate agar is used in order to determine the ability of a microorganism to utilize citrate as its sole carbon source. Simmon’s citrate agar is a defined medium containing sodium citrate as the carbon source, ammonium salts as the nitrogen source and bromthymol blue as a pH indicator. The rises in the pH due to the growth of microorganism causes the pH indicator to turn from green to royal blue. The enzyme citrase or citrate-permease is being used by those organisms which can utilize citrate as their sole carbon source to transport the citrate into the cell. The convertion of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate to ammonia and ammonium hydroxide will creates an alkaline environment in the medium. If the medium turns blue, the pH is 7.5 or above and the organism is citrate positive. If there is no color change, it is at neutral pH and the organism is citrate negative. Some citrate negative organisms may grow weakly on the surface of the slant, but they will not produce a color change. Citrate (citric acid) is an intermediate of the Kreb’s cycle (citric acid cycle) used in respiratory metabolism. Bromthymol blue (pH indicator) is incorporated

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