2 examples of unusual substrates microbes can metabolize?

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The key idea is that microbes can utilize substrates beyond the usual sugars and simple nutrients, showing metabolic versatility with xenobiotics and other unusual compounds. Glucose and starch are classic, readily used carbon sources that most microbes readily metabolize, so they don’t illustrate unusual metabolism. Ammonia and nitrate are common inorganic nutrients for microbes, not unusual substrates either. Glyphosate and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, on the other hand, are xenobiotics and persistent environmental pollutants. Some microbes have specialized enzymes to degrade these compounds, enabling them to use them or detoxify them. Glyphosate degradation can involve breaking specific bonds to access usable parts of the molecule, while PAHs require oxygenases to start ring-opening transformations, ultimately allowing mineralization. This combination highlights microbial capabilities to metabolize, or at least transform, substrates that aren’t part of standard metabolism, which is what the question is getting at.