Nutrition

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Pseudomonas aeruginosa are common parasites that can be found in a wide variety of hosts that are able to supply it with its nutritional needs (to see more about hosts it can inhabit, check out my interactions page!).
 
Bacteria do not have any membrane bound organelles or any form of tissues. Because of this, no structural mechanisms for transport of food or water are present within this organism. Excess nutrients that Pseudomonas aeruginosa uptakes through the semi-permeable plasma membrane are processed and formed into storage granules. The granules are usually in the form of an organic compound, such as glycogen or various lipid molecules.
 
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an aerobic bacterium that requires oxygen for the production of ATP. However, aerobic respiration is different in bacteria than what is found in eukaryotic organisms, because bacteria do not possess mitochondria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa instead has the electron transport chain within the inner surface of their plasma membrane. Although Pseudomonas aeruginosa uses oxygen typically for respiration, it can also use nitrates in the absence of oxygen as a final electron receptor.
                                                                                               
Pseudomonas aeruginosa has minimal nutrition requirements. It has been found growing in very clean water. (To see what other kind of habitats it can be found in, check out my habitat page!) When this bacterium is cultured in a laboratory setting, mediums simply contain acetate and ammonium sulfate. Other research has shown that these bacteria, when inside of the lungs, are feeding on an amino acid within the mucus. It uses these amino acids to synthesize its own proteins. The most common amino acid used as a nutritional requirement by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is methionine.
 

Above picture: methionine from WikiCommons.

Want to know how this bacterium reproduces? Go on to my next page! (Reproduction)

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