Question

Some bacteria are metabolically active in hot springs because:

a. they are able to maintain a lower internal temperature.

b. their enzymes have high optimal temperatures.

c. their enzymes are completely insensitive to temperature.

  

Answer 1

The right option is option (B) Their enzymes have high optimal temperatures.

Explanation:-

Enzymes found in bacteria from high temperature environment have proteins which are thermostable. This means that they can withstand high temperature which the normal counterpart can not. The best example is DNA polymerase from bacteria Thermus aquaticus. The DNA polymerase from this is called Taq pol and is used in PCR. This polymerase can withstand temperature upto 100° Celsius.

The other options are wrong because they do not maintain lower body temperature as evident from the proteins isolated from these organisms which are stable in high temperature even outside the cell. Meaning that they can withstand high temperature and that's the reason behind their survival.

While 3rd option is wrong because their enzymes aren't completely insensitive to temperature because at a particular temperature, unique to each protein, proteins from these microorganisms also get denatured.