What is the effect of increasing substrate concentration on fermentation rate?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the effect of increasing substrate concentration on fermentation rate?
Increases indefinitely
Decreases
Increases to a point then levels off
Has no effect
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the effect of increasing substrate concentration on fermentation rate?
Step 1: Understand what substrate concentration means. Substrate is the substance that is used by microorganisms during fermentation.
Step 2: Know that fermentation is a process where microorganisms convert sugars into alcohol or acids.
Step 3: Realize that when you increase the amount of substrate (sugar), there are more resources available for the microorganisms.
Step 4: As you add more substrate, the fermentation rate (how fast the microorganisms work) usually increases because they have more food.
Step 5: However, there is a limit. After a certain point, adding more substrate does not increase the fermentation rate anymore. This is called the saturation point.
Step 6: Beyond the saturation point, the fermentation rate levels off because the microorganisms can only work so fast, regardless of how much substrate is available.