Does the concept of a strict anaerobic organism sound familiar to you? Well, it may be that some other reader seems familiar, but, in most cases, we are convinced that you have never heard of this idea before, so we are going to analyze it from the beginning.
The first thing we have to bear in mind is that there are two types of organisms, on the one hand those that do not require oxygen for their activity and survival, or anaerobes; and on the other hand those that do require oxygen for their metabolism, or aerobes.
Well, within the first, the anaerobes, there are in turn internal classifications that help to better understand how your metabolism works. Among them, for example, the strict anaerobic organism stands out, which is the one that interests us in this particular opportunity.
This addition of “strict”, at the end of its definition, indicates that these anaerobic organisms cannot develop in those places where oxygen is present , something that does happen with other anaerobes that, although they do not need it, they can perfectly coexist with the same.
That is to say, while other anaerobes have no drawbacks in developing in oxygenated environments , and can even use oxygen in their breathing processes, with strict ones that does not happen, and it is precisely there where the difference between one and the other is marked.
And what are the types of anaerobic organisms that do support oxygen? We have them of two types, on the one hand aerotolerant that, as their name indicates, tolerate oxygen although they do not take advantage of it and, on the other, the facultative ones, who use it or replace it by fermentation.
However, going back to the type of organism that concerns us, any of these can disappear immediately, it comes into contact with a space with oxygen, and this is because CO2 is harmful to its survival. Its maximum tolerance is up to 8% oxygen in the atmosphere.
Being examples of this, bacteria such as Propionibacterium, Actinomyces, Clostridium tetani and Peptostreptococcus, possess some very particular characteristics, namely:
- They are incapable of oxidative phosphorylation
- They lack basic enzymes for the use of oxygen
- They get all their energy from an act known as glycolysis
All this, as part of a metabolic process that, in strict ones, requires the use of certain elements sensitive to oxidation , which leads to inorganic molecules, without going any further sulfates, take over the work of the acceptors. of electrons.
