question_answer 13)

Find out the role of microbes in the following and discuss it with your teacher. (i) Single cell protein (SCP) (ii) Soil bacteria.  

Answer:

(i) Single cell protein (SCP). Any microbial biomass produced by unicellular and multicellular microorganisms which can be used as feed or feed additives is called sickle cell protein. SCP contains about 45-55% proteins. So SCP is a protein-rich powder and is an ideal supplement to conventional food supply. It can be used to solve the problem of protein deficiency in the children of developing countries. Most commonly employed bacterial strains to produce SCP are Methylophilus, Paecilomyces, Chlorella, Spirullina, etc. (ii) Soil bacteria. Soil contains a number of useful as well as harmful microbes. The economically useful bacteria include: (a) Ammonifying bacteria (e.g., Bacillus ramosus and B. vulgaris) which decompose the proteins of dead organisms and nitrogenous wastes of animals to ammonia. (b) Nitrifying bacteria (e.g., Nitrosomonas, Nitrobactor, etc.), which oxidize ammonia to nitrites and nitrates. (c) fixing bacteria (e.g., Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Clostridium, etc.), which fix the atmospheric nitrogen as ammonia by the reduction process.