Figure 3.

Simplified scheme of pyruvate metabolism via glycolytic fermentations and lactate converting fermentations, modified after Michal et al.[44]. Exclusively, pathways which lead to the production of VOCs significantly released by S. aureus in this study (underlined with solid line) are presented, including acetoin (3-hydroxy-2-butanone), acetaldehyde, ethanol, 1-butanol, acetone, 2-propanol. In case of P. aeruginosa the metabolism of amino acids rather than glycolysis of carbohydrates yields pyruvate as starting material (significantly released or taken up products are underlined with dotted line).