Metabolism
R. eutropha is a hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium (“knallgas” bacterium) capable of growing at the interface of anaerobic and aerobic environments. It can easily adapt between a heterotrophic lifestyle and an autotrophic lifestyle. Both organic compounds and hydrogen can be used as a source of energy R. eutropha can perform aerobic respiration or anaerobic respiration by denitrification of nitrate and/or nitrite to nitrogen gas. When growing under autotrophic conditions R. eutropha fixes carbon through the pentose phosphate pathway. R. eutropha is known to produce and sequester polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) plastics when exposed to excess amounts of sugar substrate. PHA can accumulate to levels of approximately 90% of the cell's dry weight. In order to better characterize the lifestyle of R. eutropha, the genomes of two strains have been sequenced.
Read more about this topic: Ralstonia Eutropha
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