Short description of Primary metabolites, its classification, types, sources and applications

1. Presentation on Primary metabolites
Biotechnology department
Guide: Professor Kavya M V
By
• Abhinandan Kanjikar (1SG18BT001)
• Kaushik PM (1SG18BT022)
• Chandramouli K (1SG18BT014)
• Nisar Ahmad Prasar (1SG18BT028)

2. CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Primary metabolites
3. Sources and Production of primary metabolites
4. Application of primary metabolites
5. Conclusion

3. 1. Introduction
• A metabolite is an intermediate or end product
of metabolism.
• Metabolites are of 2 types:
• Primary metabolites
• Secondary metabolites
Primary metabolites are the chemical compounds
produced during the growth and development,
processes.
Secondary metabolites are compounds produced
by the organisms that are not required for primary
metabolic processes.
Metabolite
s
Fuel
Signaling
Catalytic
activity
Interactions
Structure

4. 2. Primary metabolites
• They are microbial products made during the
exponential phase of growth whose synthesis is an
integral part of the normal growth process.
• There are directly involved in maintaining normal
physiological process, thus, it is referred as Central
metabolite.
• They include intermediates and end-products of
anabolic metabolism, which are used by the cell as
building blocks for essential macromolecules.
• Other primary metabolites (e.g. citric acid, acetic acid
and ethanol) result from catabolic metabolism; they are
not used for building cellular constituents but their
production, which is related to energy production and
substrate utilization, is essential for growth.

5. Primary metabolites are typically formed during the growth phase as a result of energy
metabolism, and are deemed essential for proper growth.
Industrially, the most important primary metabolites are amino acids, nucleotides,
vitamins, solvents and organic acids.

6. 3. Sources and Production of primary metabolites
There are many primary metabolites produced by various plants and microorganism.
Some of them come under amino acids, ethanol and its related compounds, purines and pyrimidines,
Organic acid and so on.
Organic compounds such as citric acid exists in a variety of fruits and vegetables, most notably citrus
fruits. It is primarily produce by Aspergillus. niger
Lemons and limes have particularly high concentrations of
the acid.
Citric acid can be obtained as an anhydrous (water-free) form
or as a monohydrate.
The anhydrous form crystallizes from hot water, while the
monohydrate forms when citric acid is crystallized from cold
water.

7. Production of citric acid involves 2 methods(Fig1):
Biochemical method: Citric acid produces as a primary metabolite produces by the
microorganisms. (Fig2)
Fig 2
Fig 1

8. b) Biological process: It involves fermentation of citric acid by the use of micro-organisms.
This is carried out in 3 different processes as shown below (Fig3).
After obtaining the citric acid as primary metabolite from A. niger, they are refined by
Recovery process of citric acid (Fig4):
Fig 3
Fig 4

9. Ethanol and ethanol related compounds
Ethanol is a primary metabolite produced by
fermentation of sugar, or of a polysaccharide that
can be depolymerized to a fermentable sugar.
In general, it is also referred to as alcohol spirit,
spirit of wine, grain alcohol, absolute alcohol, and
ethyl hydrate.
It is colorless liquid with a characteristic odor. It is a
psychoactive substance and is the main component
of alcoholic beverages.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used for the
fermentation of hexoses, whereas Kluyveromyces
fragilis is employed for lactose utilization.

10. Production of ethanol:
Ethanol can be produced synthetically using ethene or can also be made by fermentation of
sugar using microorganisms.
a) Production using ethene:
Ethanol can be produced synthetically using ethene or can also be made by fermentation of
sugar using microorganisms. Ethanol is made by hydration of ethene (CH2=CH2) is the easier
and cost effective method to manufacture ethanol. Ethene is a product of petroleum industry
and thus is easily available raw material.
Another method to convert ethene into ethanol is via ethyl sulfate.

11. b) Production using fermentation process:
• The whole process for corn fermentation
involves series of steps.
• It starts with cleaning and washing of raw
corn to remove dirt and other impurities.
• The raw material is crushed and heated in
warm water to extract their starch content.
• The material is transferred to fermentation
tank where it is mixed with yeast.

12. Distillation:
The fermented material known as mash is further processed using one single step distillation to
separate liquid from solid.
The distillation of liquid increases the purity level of ethanol and the final product is 96% ethanol.
Fig 6

13. Glutamic acid is an α-amino acid that is used by almost
all living beings in the biosynthesis of proteins.
One of the most critical amino acids is L-glutamine which
is by far the most abundant free amino acid in the body.
It accounts for over 60% of the free amino acids in blood,
brain, organs, and muscle tissue.
It is also an excitatory neurotransmitter, in fact the
most abundant one, in the vertebrate nervous system.
The glutamate neurotransmitter plays the principal role
in neural activation.
Many genera and species are included in the group of
glutamate overproducers, e.g. species
of Micrococcus, Corynebacterium, Brevibacterium
These organisms were shown to possess the
Embden‐Meyerhof glycolytic pathway (EMP), the pentose
monophosphate pathway, the TCA cycle.
Glutamic acid

14. Fig 8
Fig 7
The TCA cycle requires a continuous replenishment of oxaloacetate in order to replace the
intermediates withdrawn for the synthesis of biomass and amino acids.
Production of L-glutamic acid:

15. Fig 9

16. 4. Application of primary metabolites
1. Food industry:
• Glycine and alanine are used to heighten flavor and
taste. Another example is monosodium glutamate (MSG),
a derivative of glutamic acid, widely used in Asian dishes
to intensify the flavor.
• Citric acid is used in food as a flavoring agent and
preservative, To keep fat globules away some ice cream
companies use it as an emulsifier.
• In the food industry, acetic acid finds its use most
commonly in commercial pickling operations, and in
condiments like mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup.

17. 2. Medical and Health uses:
• The most important use of ethanol here is that it can be
used as an antiseptic against pseudomonas,
enterococci, streptococci, staphylococci and others.
• Ethanol is also used as an antiseptic and as a
disinfectant.
• Acetic acid is used for the manufacture of
 Various dye stuffs and perfumes,
 Rayon fiber,
 synthetic fibers and textiles,
 inks and dyes,
• Ethanol is the primary ingredient in orally consumed
drinks for recreational purposes that acts as a
psychoactive drug by reducing anxiety.
• Leucine, valine, proline, alanine, cysteine, and
isoleucine are used in supplements for muscle growth
and body building.

18. 3. Industrial uses:
• Acetic acid is used in many industrial processes for the
production of substrates such as production of a
number of chemical compounds like acetic
anhydride, vinegar, ester, etc.
• Threonine can be used to produce herbicide aztreonam
and glycine can be used to produce glyphosate,
another herbicide.
4. Other uses:
• Citric acid is used as a water softener in detergents,
because of it’s an organic acid, chelating, and buffering
properties.
• A glutamic acid derivative, poly-γ-benzyl-L-
glutamate (PBLG), is often used as an alignment
medium to control the scale of the dipolar interactions
observed in nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy (NMR)

19. 5. Conclusion
• Primary metabolites are microbial products made during the exponential phase of growth whose
synthesis is an integral part of the normal growth process.
• They include intermediates and end-products of anabolic metabolism, which are used by the cell as
building blocks.
• Other primary metabolites (e.g. citric acid, acetic acid and ethanol) result from catabolic
metabolism; they are used for their production, which is related to energy production and
substrate utilization
• Many of these metabolites are manufactured by microbial fermentation rather than chemical
synthesis because the fermentations are economically competitive and produce biologically useful
isomeric forms
• Industrially, the most important primary metabolites are amino acids, nucleotides, vitamins,
solvents and organic acids.
• These are made by a diverse range of bacteria and fungi and have numerous uses in the food,
chemical and nutraceutical industries.

20. THANK YOU