Fermentation (biochemistry)

Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to acids, gases, or alcohol. It occurs in yeast and bacteria, and also in oxygen-starved muscle cells, as in the case of lactic acid fermentation. Fermentation is also used more broadly to refer to the bulk growth of microorganisms on a growth medium, often with the goal of producing a specific chemical product. French microbiologist Louis Pasteur is often remembered for his insights into fermentation and its microbial causes. The science of fermentation is known as zymology.

Fermentation takes place when the electron transport chain is unusable (often due to lack of a final electron receptor, such as oxygen). In this case it becomes the cell's primary means of ATP (energy) production. It turns NADH and pyruvate produced in glycolysis into NAD⁺ and an organic molecule (which varies depending on the type of fermentation; see examples below). In the presence of O₂, NADH and pyruvate are used to generate ATP in respiration. This is called oxidative phosphorylation, and it generates much more ATP than glycolysis alone. For that reason, cells generally benefit from avoiding fermentation when oxygen is available, the exception being obligate anaerobes which cannot tolerate oxygen.

The first step, glycolysis, is common to all fermentation pathways:

Pyruvate is CH₃COCOO⁻. P_i is inorganic phosphate. Two ADP molecules and two P_i are converted to two ATP and two water molecules via substrate-level phosphorylation. Two molecules of NAD⁺ are also reduced to NADH.

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