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Cellular Respiration

Tags
Biology
Cegep/1
Word count
248 words
Reading time
2 minutes

Combustion of glucose to produce ATP
Redox

C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6 O2 -> 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + 30-32 ATP + heat

Most energy is actually released as heat.

Variation of ATP yield is due to energy loss and proton leakage during chemiosmosis.

Steps

Throughout glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation and Krebs cycle, glucose is oxidized and electron carriers (NAD+ and FAD) are reduced. They then transport the electrons to the ETC.

Glycolysis

Glucose -> 2 Pyruvate + 2 NADH + 2 ATP
Substrate-level phosphorylation

In cytosol

Phases:

  1. Energy investment phase: glucose + 2 ATP -> 2 G3P
  2. Energy payoff phase: 2 G3P -> 2 Pyruvate + 2 NADH + 4 ATP

Pyruvate oxidation

2 Pyruvate -> 2 Acetyl-CoA + 2 NADH + 2 CO2

In mitochondria

Krebs cycle

2 Acetyl-CoA -> 6 NADH + 2 FADH2 + 2 ATP + 4 CO2
Substrate-level phosphorylation
A.k.a. citric acid cycle

In mitochondria

Electron transport & chemiosmosis

10 NADH + 2 FADH2 + 6 O2 -> 6 H2O + 26-28 ATP
Oxidative phosphorylation

In mitochondria
Makes most of the ATP

Steps:

  1. Complex I / II transfers electrons from NADH / FADH2 to ETC.
  2. Electrons flow through ETC and gives energy to complexes I, III and IV to pump protons to the intermembrane space to generate a proton gradient.
  3. Protons flow through ATP synthase into the matrix, powering phosphorylation.

Contributors

Changelog