Question

What is fermentation? Name two organic compounds produced in the process.

Answer 1

In microorganisms, the primary means of producing adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by anaerobic degradation of organic nutrients is fermentation.

Complete Answer:
- Fermentation is a metabolic process that, through the action of enzymes, induces chemical changes in organic substrates. It is broadly described in biochemistry as the extraction of carbohydrate energy in the absence of oxygen. In the sense of food processing, any phase in which the behaviour of microorganisms brings about a beneficial improvement to a food or beverage can be more generally referred to fermentation
- Zymology is known as the science of fermentation. For example, in a process that produces lactic acid contained in sour foods such as pickled cucumbers, kombucha, kimchi and yoghurt, fermentation is used for preservation, as well as to produce alcoholic drinks such as wine and beer.
- Within the gastrointestinal tracts of all species, including humans, fermentation often takes place. In almost any environment capable of sustaining microbes, yeast, a type of fungus, occurs from the skins of fruits to the guts of insects and mammals and the deep ocean and harvests materials rich in sugar to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide.

Note: In environments ranging from cattle rumens to sewage digesters and freshwater sediments, fermentative bacteria play an important role in producing methane. Hydrogen, carbon dioxide, formate and acetate and carboxylic acids are produced; then carbon dioxide and acetate are converted into methane by consortiums of microbes. The acids are oxidised by acetogenic bacteria, having more acetate and then hydrogen or formate. Finally, methanogens transform acetate to methane (in the Archaea domain).