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redox potential, individual micro-organisms are conveniently classified
into one of several physiological groups on the basis of the redox range
over which they can grow and their response to oxygen.
Obligate or strict aerobes are those organisms that are respiratory,
generating most of their energy from oxidative phosphorylation using
oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor in the process. Consequently
they have a requirement for oxygen and a highEhand will predominate
at food surfaces exposed to air or where air is readily available. For
example, pseudomonads, such asPseudomonas fluorescens, which grows
at anEhofþ100 toþ500 mV, and other oxidative Gram-negative rods
produce slime and off-odours at meat surfaces.Bacillus subtilis(Eh
100
toþ135 mV) produces rope in the open texture of bread andAcetobacter
species growing on the surface of alcoholic beverages, oxidize ethanol to
acetic acid to produce either spoilage or vinegar.
Obligate anaerobes tend only to grow at low or negative redox
potentials and often require oxygen to be absent. Anaerobic metabolism
gives the organism a lower yield of utilizable energy than aerobic
respiration, so a reducing environment that minimizes the loss of valu-
able reducing power from the microbial cell is favoured. The presence or
absence of oxygen can naturally affect this, but for many anaerobes,
oxygen exerts a specific toxic effect of its own. For example, it has been
observed thatClostridium acetobutylicumcan grow at anEhas high as
þ370 mV maintained by ferricyanide, but would not grow atþ110 mV in
an aerated culture. This effect is linked to the inability of obligate or
aero-intolerant anaerobes to scavenge and destroy toxic products of
molecular oxygen such as hydrogen peroxide and, more importantly, the
superoxide anion radical (O
 2 ) produced by a one-electron reduction of
molecular oxygen. They lack the enzymes catalase and superoxide
dismutase, which catalyse the breakdown of these species as outlined
below.

2O
 2 þ2H 
!

superoxide dismutase

H 2 O 2 þO 2 ð 3 : 16 Þ

2H 2 O (^2) catalase
! 2H 2 O 2 þO 2 ð 3 : 17 Þ
Obligate anaerobes, such as clostridia, are of great importance in food
microbiology. They have the potential to grow wherever conditions are
anaerobic such as deep in meat tissues and stews, in vacuum packs and
canned foods causing spoilage and, in the case ofC. botulinum, the major
public health concern: botulism.
Aerotolerant anaerobes are incapable of aerobic respiration, but can
nevertheless grow in the presence of air. Many lactic acid bacteria fall
into this category; they can only generate energy by fermentation and
lack both catalase and superoxide dismutase, but are able to grow in the
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