Facultative Anaerobe TCA cycle?

[deleted678432]

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So I got a BC question asking what a facultative anaerobic bacterium would do in the presence of oxygen and it came to a surprise to be that they would perform TCA in the cytoplasm. Now I get a Destroyer question stating that prokaryotes/bacteria cannot undergo TCA as they do not have mitochondria (what I originally thought). What's going on? Am I reading something wrong or what? I've thought my whole life (yes, since I was an infant too) that Bacteria/prokaryotes only really undergo glycolysis and oxidative phos (in gram negative bacteria), but now I'm getting curveballs thrown at me.

 

[spdental]

The BC question was asking the difference between facultative and oblige anaerobic bacterium (those who switch to aerobic cycle in presence of O2 and those who die). I'm not 100% sure where that aerobic respiration takes place though as prokaryotes do not have a mitochondria.

 

[FeralisExtremum]

While it's true that prokaryotes don't have mitochondria, they don't need one to perform the citric acid cycle. In eukaryotes, TCA takes place in the mitochondria. In prokaryotes, it occurs in the cytoplasm. Prokaryotes can still undergo TCA.