Acetic Acid Bacteria

Abstract

The acetic acid bacteria, yeasts, and the lactic acid bacteria have been used from ancient times in the domestic arts of vinegar and wine production, of brewing and baking, and in the preparation of buttermilk, cheese, pickles, and the like, although the nature of the processes was hardly realised. It was Kiitzing's demonstration of the living nature of "mother of vinegar" which revealed, for the first time, that acetification of wine was caused by living organisms. Pasteur's studies on vinegar and wine spoilage, the early work of Hansen on the acetic acid bacteria from beer, Brown's isolation of Acetobacter xylinum and study of its remarkable capacity to synthesise cellulose, Bertrand's isolation of this organism from fermented mountain ash berry juice and recognition of its remarkably specific oxidative potential ities (Bertrand's Rule), and the contributions of the Delft School (particu larly of Kluyver et al.,) , all represent the classical epoch in the history of the acetic acid bacteria and are too well-known to be repeated here. Many useful and important data were supplied later by Henneberg and by Hermann and Neuschul as well.To cover every aspect of the acetic acid bacteria from the earliest periods comprehensively, meaningfully, and usefully would take a whole monograph. The purpose of this review, therefore, is to cover only the "recent" studies on this group. The author has arbitrarily chosen, for the greater part, only publications appearing after 1940. For it was during that period that our ideas about intermediary metabolism and the role of growth factors in nutrition and metabolism grew out of infancy and this led to more meaning ful experiments on the acetic acid bacteria. Passing mention of the earlier papers has been made wherever they were deemed relevant and useful; the original references can be traced through any of the earlier reviews. The

Cellulose Expression in Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and Other Environmental Pseudomonads

“…A similar starter often referred to as a 'tea fungus' is used today to produce Kombucha, a carbonated cider-like drink from a sugary solution containing black tea (see the description given in [42]). Acetic acid bacteria, including Gluconacetobacter spp., can be isolated from these and similar consortia where they are responsible for the cellulose matrix-based biofilm (see an early review of the acetic acid bacteria by [43]). These artificially-maintained Gluconacetobacter spp.…”