8 Flashcards
Define metabolism and it’s properties
- The burning of food
- This is how we get our energy
- Works through exergonic processes and endergonic processes
Define exergonic processes and its properties. Are they spontaneous or non spontaneous? Where do they stand in Gibbs free energy?
- Release energy (think exorcist)
- Are spontaneous
- They have a Change in Gibs free energy of less than 0.
What are endergonic processes? Are they spontaneous? Where are they on the gibs free energy?
- require energy (think endermen)
- are non spontaneous
- they have a change in Gibbs free energy of greater than 0
What does it mean for something to be spontaneous?
Acts by internal force and does not require an external force
What is the first law of thermodynamics?
Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can be transformed, but not destroyed
What is the second law of thermodynamics?
Entropy. The universe is always increasing in entropy as energy is released.
What is entropy?
A state of randomness or messiness
What are surroundings in thermodynamics?
Everything outside of the system
What is heat? How does it relate to thermodynamics? In what energy transformations is heat given off?
- It is an absolute waste of energy
- Cannot be used to do work in a cell
- It is released into the environments and contributes to an increase in entropy (law 2)
- It is the most random form of energy
- It is given off in all energy transformations
What is free energy? What type of energy is it?
- It is the energy that a cell can actually use (not including heat) to do work when the temperature is uniform throughout
- It is a chemical energy
What is catabolism? What are its properties? Is it exergonic or endergonic? Does it have a negative or a positive change in free energy?
- Is exergonic
- Reaction that takes compounds and breaks it down into simpler units
- Releases energy while doing so
- It has a negative change in free energy (releases energy)
What type of reaction is cellular respiration?
Exergonic; catabolic
What is anabolism? What are its properties? Is it exergonic or endergonic? Does it have a positive or a negative change in free energy?
- Require energy
- Are non spontaneous
- Has a positive change in free energy
- Takes smaller molecules and makes it into larger, complex molecules (think of someone building a tower made of Legos)
What type of reaction is photosynthesis
Anabolic, endergonic
What is energy coupling?
- Energy (ATP) released from catabolic reactions is used by anabolic reactions to build molecules
What is a phosphorylated intermediate? What does it do?
- ATP adds phosphate to another substance
- This is how they get fused together
- Helps work the positive endergonic reaction
- The reaction becomes a negative free energy value
- It is now catabolic again
How many phosphates does ATP have?
3
What are enzymes? What do they do?
- Proteins
- They regulate metabolism
- They do not add or require energy. Instead they lower the activation energy
- Are not consumed in reactions
- Make reactions easier to take place (think of Mario kart and how lakeisters move the karts around the track)
What are the two components of an enzyme?
- The substrate
- The active site
What is the function of the active site in an enzyme?
- The main part
- Acts like a lock
- Are strictly specific to only one possible chemical substrate
What is the substrate?
- The key that fits perfectly into the active site
- Are specific to only one possible
What happens if the substrate has hydrogen bonds?
- The active site breaks apart the bonds, changes the shape and sends off the substrates as products
Why are active site enzymes important I’m with hydrogen bond substrates?
Water can hydrolyze if needed, and the reaction has a lower activation energy because the enzymes did some work to break things up
What affects the enzymatic activity?
The physical environment of a cell
