Question

Hypothesize and explain how a bacterium could use starch as a source of energy to produce ATP. In your response, discuss the reaction used for hydrolysis and methods of energy production.

Answer 1

The bacterium can utilise the starch as an energy source. The procedure for utilising starch is different in bacteria in comparison to other multicellular organisms. The size of the starch molecule is larger for the bacteria to intake. So the bacteria secrets some hydrolysing enzymes outside the cell. So the starch present outside the cell got breakdown and the starch molecules gets breakdown into simpler molecules so that the bacteria can easily uptake the molecules. Then the bacteria can produce ATP from the carbohydrates produced from the starch.

The reaction involved in the production of energy for bacterial cells is glycolysis. In glycolysis the complex carbohydrate molecule which can be broken down starch or glycogen is converted to to glucose 6 phosphate or glucose 1 phosphate which is a simplest sugar that can be used for ATP production. This energy production needs the use of some energy from ATP. Thus the breakdown of ATP molecule occurs in the presence of ATPase enzyme. During the ATP production process, the proton motive force across the cell membrane runs which causes the phosphorylation of ADPs to produce ATP.