Read the Passage carefully and answer the questions.
Microbes in human welfare
Microbes are a very important component of life on earth. We use microbes and microbially derived products almost every day, like LAB to make curd, yeast to make bread, adding flavor and texture to cheese, producing antibiotics etc. The addition of LAB, improves the milk quality by increasing vit. B12. Cheese is one of the oldest food items in which microbes are used. For example, large holes in Swiss cheese are due to CO2 produced by the bacterium Propionibacterium sharmanii. The BOD test measures the rate of uptake of oxygen by microorganisms in a sample of water and thus, indirectly, BOD is a measure of the organic matter present in the water. The greater the BOD of waste water, the more is its polluting potential. In anaerobic sludge digesters, bacteria produce a mixture of gases like methane, hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide. These gases form biogas and can be used as a source of energy. Biofertilisers are organisms that enrich the nutrient quality of the soil. The main sources of biofertilisers are bacteria, fungi and cyanobacteria. You have studied about the nodules on the roots of leguminous plants formed by the symbiotic association of Rhizobium. These bacteria fix atmospheric nitrogen into organic forms, which is used by the plant as a nutrient. Other bacteria can fix atmospheric nitrogen while free-living in the soil (examples Azospirillum and Azotobacter).
The large holes in Swiss cheese are generated by -
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Propionibacterium sharmanii
Option (1) Propionibacterium shamanii — Incorrect. There is no such bacterium. The “r” is missing from the species name, which is sharmanii.
Option (2) Propiobacterium sharmanii — Incorrect. There is no such bacterium. The genus name has lost “ni”; it is Propionibacterium.
Option (3) Propionibacterium sharmanii — Correct. This bacterium grows in the cheese and produces a large amount of CO2. The gas collects as bubbles, and these bubbles leave the large holes of Swiss cheese.
Option (4) Propiobacterium shamanii — Incorrect. There is no such bacterium. Both names are misspelt here. When four options differ by only a letter or two, check the name letter by letter before you mark it.
Note 1: The passage is taken from NCERT. NTA has put lines of the NCERT text together to make it. Most CUET (UG) questions come straight from NCERT, so study the book line by line, including figures and their titles.
Note 2: A similar question was also asked in CUET (UG) 2026 on 22-05-2026 (Slot 1), in CUET (UG) 2025 on 28-05-2025 (Slot 1), and in CUET (UG) 2023 on 10-06-2023 (Slot 3).