Are pseudomonas bacteria aerobes or not?
Pseudomonas are actually facultative anaerobes. Given the chance, they will use oxygen as the final electron acceptor. However, when Pseudomonas aeruginosa infects people (particularly people with cystic fibrosis), they live anaerobically in biofilms (polysaccharide excretions that protect the bacteria) in the lungs. While anaerobic and living in the human body, they can use Nitrate (NO3−), nitrite (NO2−), and nitrous oxide (N2O) as terminal electron acceptors. Fermentation is actually not a requirement for being anaerobic of facultative anaerobes. I was taught that in high school microbiology courses, but it is not even true for the majority of anaerobic bacteria. I’ve had several college microbiology course, including one on microbial physiology.
