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ethanol fermentation

traitmech:000028 · CLASS · REVIEWED

A fermentation in which pyruvate is decarboxylated to acetaldehyde (releasing CO2) and then reduced by NADH to ethanol, regenerating NAD+ for glycolysis. Characteristic of yeasts and the bacterium Zymomonas mobilis.

Ethanol (alcoholic) fermentation converts pyruvate to ethanol + CO2

Evidence-backed causal sketch linking pyruvate decarboxylation and NADH-driven ethanol production to NAD+ regeneration.

Ethanol (alcoholic) fermentation converts pyruvate to ethanol + CO2 Interactive directed graph showing evidence-backed causal relationships for ethanol fermentation.

Edge evidence

  • ethanol fermentation participates in fermentation biolink:participates_in

    Alcoholic fermentation is a class of fermentation metabolism.

    • DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2021.703525 Energy-conservation review supports ethanol as an NADH-reoxidizing fermentation end product.
  • ethanol fermentation produces ethanol METPO:2000202

    Ethanol is the characteristic end product of the pathway.

    • DOI:10.3390/molecules31020333 Classical-fermentation review describes pyruvate decarboxylation and reduction to ethanol.
  • pyruvate is substrate for pyruvate decarboxylase

    Pyruvate is decarboxylated by pyruvate decarboxylase to acetaldehyde + CO2.

    • DOI:10.5376/be.2024.14.0025 Pyruvate is decarboxylated to acetaldehyde by pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), releasing CO2.
  • pyruvate decarboxylase produces acetaldehyde METPO:2000202

    Pyruvate decarboxylase yields acetaldehyde from pyruvate.

    • DOI:10.5376/be.2024.14.0025 Pyruvate is decarboxylated to acetaldehyde by pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC).
  • pyruvate decarboxylase produces carbon dioxide METPO:2000202

    Decarboxylation of pyruvate releases CO2.

    • DOI:10.5376/be.2024.14.0025 Pyruvate is decarboxylated to acetaldehyde by pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), releasing CO2.
  • acetaldehyde is substrate for alcohol dehydrogenase

    Acetaldehyde is reduced to ethanol by alcohol dehydrogenase.

    • DOI:10.5376/be.2024.14.0025 Acetaldehyde is reduced to ethanol by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).
  • alcohol dehydrogenase produces ethanol METPO:2000202

    Alcohol dehydrogenase produces ethanol from acetaldehyde.

    • DOI:10.5376/be.2024.14.0025 Acetaldehyde is reduced to ethanol by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).
  • alcohol dehydrogenase consumes NADH biolink:consumes

    The ADH reduction step oxidizes NADH.

    • DOI:10.5376/be.2024.14.0025 ADH reaction reoxidizes NADH, regenerating NAD+ to sustain glycolysis.
  • alcohol dehydrogenase produces NAD+ METPO:2000202

    NAD+ is regenerated from NADH during ethanol formation, sustaining glycolysis.

    • DOI:10.5376/be.2024.14.0025 Regenerating NAD+ from NADH to sustain glycolysis.

Provenance

Source
METPO (2025-11-25)
Definition source
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2021.703525

Parent traits (1)

Synonyms (1)

  • alcoholic fermentation RELATED_SYNONYM · DOI:10.3390/molecules31020333

kg-microbe context

Matched 1 kg-microbe node via parent_proxy.

  • METPO:1002005 [-0.758, -6.428, +3.551, +10.454, …]

512-dim DeepWalkSkipGramEnsmallen embedding from kg-microbe (2026-04-25).

Nearest neighbors in embedding space

Top-8 cosine-similar METPO traits from the 2026-04-25 deepwalk (512-D).

Curation history

  1. · PROPOSED_FROM_RESEARCH · claude

    Proposed candidate METABOLISM trait (ethanol/alcoholic fermentation); product-specific sub-variant of the existing Fermentation class (METPO:1002005).

  2. · CURATED_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude

    Added evidence-backed causal graph (alcoholic fermentation / ethanol production) with GO node grounding and METPO/biolink predicate groundings; promoted PROPOSED to REVIEWED.

  3. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (CHEBI:16236×1).

  4. · ENRICH_CAUSAL_GRAPH · claude

    Added 7 evidence-backed generic edges (7 new nodes) from the deep-research report.

  5. · GROUND_CAUSAL_PREDICATES · claude

    Grounded 5 causal-edge predicate_id field(s) via mappings/predicate_grounding.tsv (METPO:2000202×4, biolink:consumes×1).

  6. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 1 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (CHEBI:16526×1).

  7. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 3 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (CHEBI:15361×1, CHEBI:15343×1, CHEBI:15846×1).

  8. · GROUND_CAUSAL_NODES · claude

    Grounded 2 causal-node grounding field(s) via mappings/node_grounding.tsv (UniProtKB:A0A067Z5Y9×1, UniProtKB:A0A022L3Z7×1).