Chapter 



5 



Progress and Problems in 

 Bacterial Metabolism 



By H. A. BARKER 



Bacterial metabolism is a very large subject. 

 The chemical reactions in a single bacterium that are re- 

 sponsible for substrate accumulation, oxidative or fer- 

 mentative metabolism, protein and enzyme synthesis, struc- 

 tural organization, and conversion of chemical energy to 

 mechanical work cannot be explained by all our present 

 biochemical knowledge. Furthermore, in a consideration of 

 bacterial metabolism, the subject matter is increased many 

 fold by the great variety of organisms. The metabolism of 

 each species must differ in some way from that of every 

 other, since every morphological and physiological charac- 

 ter of an organism must have a chemical basis. 



In view of the complexity of the subject, I have decided 

 to restrict this discussion to a few observations on the his- 

 torical development of the knowledge of bacterial metabo- 

 lism, with some mention of certain areas of research in 

 which notable progress has been made and other areas in 

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