Abstract
Metabolic processes may be divided into two categories, anabolic or synthetic, and catabolic or degradative. Overall, during metabolism, energy must be derived from catabolic processes to drive anabolic processes. The study of bacterial metabolism involves the measurement of the rate of disappearance of substances, the detection and estimation of reaction products, the measurement of the rate of use of oxygen during respiration and many specialized techniques, such as the spectroscopic determination of respiratory pigments. Much use is made of washed suspensions of bacteria —prepared by suspending bacteria in water or in solutions containing various combinations of ions—in metabolic studies, it is being argued that during an experiment with washed suspensions, no growth occurs and chemical changes uncomplicated by changes because of growth may thus be studied. A further experimental stage is to attempt to prepare from the bacterial cells the enzymes responsible for the changes being studied, and to determine the nature of any coenzyme or metal ions that may be implicated in the enzyme-catalyzed reaction.
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