Nutrition is an important aspect of a living organisms life. Likewise, microorganisms are also needed some essential nutrients for their growth and metabolism. In this video, the nutritional requirements of microorganisms such as macro and micronutrients were discussed. The macronutrients such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron were important for the microorganisms to perform various roles. On the other hand, several other elements are also required by the microbes on a small level which is known as microelements or micronutrients. These nutrients include manganese, zinc, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, and copper. These are not essential elements for the growth of the microbes but these are involved in biological functions in several ways. All organisms need carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and a source of electrons for the biosynthesis the organic molecules. Nitrogen is needed for the synthesis of amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, some carbohydrates and lipids, enzyme cofactors, and other substances. Phosphorus is present in nucleic acids, phospholipids, nucleotides like ATP, several cofactors, some proteins, and other cell components. Sulfur is needed for the synthesis of substances like the amino acids cysteine and methionine, some carbohydrates, biotin, and thiamine.
There are three major classes of growth factors:
(1) amino acids: Amino acids are needed for protein synthesis;
(2) purines and pyrimidines: required for the synthesis of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA)
3) vitamins: Vitamins are small organic molecules that usually make up all or part of enzyme cofactors and are needed in only very small amounts to sustain growth.
On the other hand, those microorganisms able to synthesize large quantities of vitamins can be used to manufacture these compounds for human use. Current research focuses on improving yields and finding microorganisms that can produce large quantities of other vitamins
Answer for
What is microbial nutrition and growth?
What are the four main nutritional categories of microbes?
How do microbes get nutrition from the environment?
What are the modes of nutrition in bacteria?
