The Pasteur effect describes how available

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

inhibits ethanol fermentation, driving

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

to switch toward aerobic respiration for increased generation of the energy carrier adenosine triphosphate (ATP). More generally, in the medical literature, the Pasteur effect refers to how the presence of oxygen causes in a decrease in the cellular rate of glycolysis and suppression of lactate accumulation. The effect occurs in animal tissues, as well as in microorganisms belonging to the

fungal A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the tradit ...

kingdom.

Discovery

In 1857, microbiologist

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, Fermentation, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the la ...

showed that aeration of yeasted broth causes cell growth to increase while the fermentation rate decreases, based on lowered ethanol production.

Explanation

Yeast fungi, being facultative anaerobes, can either produce energy through ethanol fermentation or aerobic respiration. When the O₂ concentration is low, the two pyruvate molecules formed through glycolysis are each fermented into

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

and

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

. While only 2 ATP are produced per glucose, this method is utilized under anaerobic conditions because it oxidizes the electron shuttle NADH into NAD⁺ for another round of glycolysis and ethanol fermentation. If the concentration of oxygen increases, pyruvate is instead converted to acetyl CoA, used in the

citric acid cycle The citric acid cycle—also known as the Krebs cycle, Szent–Györgyi–Krebs cycle, or TCA cycle (tricarboxylic acid cycle)—is a series of chemical reaction, biochemical reactions that release the energy stored in nutrients through acetyl-Co ...

, and undergoes oxidative phosphorylation. Per glucose, 10 NADH and 2 FADH₂ are produced in cellular respiration for a significant amount of proton pumping to produce a proton gradient utilized by ATP Synthase. While the exact ATP output ranges based on considerations like the overall electrochemical gradient, aerobic respiration produces far more ATP than the anaerobic process of ethanol fermentation. The increased ATP and citrate from aerobic respiration allosterically inhibit the glycolysis enzyme phosphofructokinase 1 because less pyruvate is needed to produce the same amount of ATP. Despite this energetic incentive, Rosario Lagunas has shown that yeast continue to partially ferment available glucose into ethanol for many reasons. First, glucose metabolism is faster through ethanol fermentation because it involves fewer enzymes and limits all reactions to the

cytoplasm The cytoplasm describes all the material within a eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, including the organelles and excluding the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. The material inside the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell a ...

. Second, ethanol has bactericidal activity by causing damage to the

cell membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extr ...

and protein denaturing, allowing yeast fungus to outcompete environmental bacteria for resources. Third, partial fermentation may be a defense mechanism against environmental competitors depleting all oxygen faster than the yeast's regulatory systems could fully switch from aerobic respiration to ethanol fermentation.

Practical implications

The fermentation processes used in

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

production is commonly maintained in low oxygen conditions, under a blanket of carbon dioxide, while growing yeast for biomass involves aerating the broth for maximized energy production. Despite the bactericidal effects of ethanol, acidifying effects of fermentation, and low oxygen conditions of industrial alcohol production, bacteria that undergo lactic acid fermentation can contaminate such facilities because lactic acid has a low pKa of 3.86 to avoid decoupling the pH membrane gradient that supports regulated transport.

Discovery

Explanation

Practical implications

See also

References

Further reading