Lactic acid fermentation

Lactic acid fermentation converts sugars into lactate while regenerating NAD⁺, allowing glycolysis to continue without oxygen as the final electron acceptor.

Glycolysis: A metabolic pathway that breaks glucose into pyruvate, producing ATP and NADH. It supplies the pyruvate and NADH that lactic acid fermentation uses.
Lactic acid bacteria: A diverse group of bacteria that produce lactic acid as a major product of carbohydrate metabolism. These microbes drive many food fermentations through lactate production.
Aerobic respiration: Cellular energy metabolism that uses oxygen as the final electron acceptor in an electron transport chain. It oxidizes fuel more completely instead of relying on fermentation to regenerate NAD⁺.
Louis Pasteur: A French chemist and microbiologist whose experiments established the role of microorganisms in fermentation. His studies connected lactic fermentation to the activity of living microbes.
Lactate dehydrogenase: An enzyme that catalyzes the reversible conversion of pyruvate and NADH into lactate and NAD⁺. It carries out the defining reaction and restores NAD⁺ for glycolysis.
Yogurt: A fermented milk product made when bacterial cultures acidify milk. Its characteristic acidity and texture develop as bacteria ferment lactose.
Anaerobic respiration: Energy metabolism that uses an electron transport chain with a final electron acceptor other than oxygen. Unlike fermentation, it uses an electron transport chain and an external electron acceptor.
Eduard Buchner: A German chemist who demonstrated cell-free fermentation with extracts from yeast. His work showed fermentation could proceed without intact living cells.
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide: A coenzyme that carries electrons between metabolic reactions in oxidized NAD⁺ and reduced NADH forms. Fermentation depends on recycling NADH back to NAD⁺.
Sauerkraut: Finely cut cabbage preserved by lactic acid fermentation and salt. Lactate-producing microbes acidify the cabbage and help preserve it.

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