What is the significance of facultative anaerobes?

The significance of facultative anaerobes lies in their ability to survive in unfavorable conditions that lack oxygen. 

• They play a pivotal role in maintaining the soil ecosystem and soil health by degrading complex organic pollutants. 
• Facultative anaerobes are also responsible for decomposing organic matter in oxygen-deplete areas such as within inner layers of soil and piles of organic matter. 
• These organisms play a key role in nutrient cycling and biogeochemical cycles. This is because they use inorganic substances such as sulfur, nitrite, fumarate, nitrate, and sulfate as terminal electron acceptors during anaerobic respiration. 
• Their ability to decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide makes these organisms useful for a wide range of applications including the treatment of effluents and wastewater, soil remediation, and commercialization of biofuel. Researchers are currently exploring ways to utilize facultative anaerobes as a substrate for generating biofuels, chemicals, and minerals from waste gases. 
• The human gut microbiome is made up of a wide variety of facultative anaerobes, which play crucial roles in digesting and fermenting ingested food, mainly glycoproteins and complex polysaccharides.  
• Most blood, deep tissue, wound, respiratory tract, and urinary tract infections are caused by facultative anaerobes. 
• Facultative anaerobes are widely used to facilitate most fermentation operations in industrial applications. For example, it is used to produce lactic acid and ethanol.