Relationships of metabolic products to taxonomy of anaerobic bacteria

Acid and aclohol products are extremely useful for identification of anaerobic bacteria. The types and relative amounts of products are similar from strain to strain (either fresh isolates or historic reference strains); reproducible from culture to culture within a strain; and easily determined by chromatography. Among the many different patterns of products, some, by definition, are shared by all species of the genus (e. g. Propionibacterium) and some are produced by only a single described species (e. g. Ramibacterium a alactolyticum).