Carbon Metabolism Part 1 Flashcards
What is metabolism? 4 Definitions
- From greek: transition or change
- Set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in all living organisms
- The chemical process that occurs within a living organism in order to maintain life.
- All chemical reactions involved in maintaining the living state of the cells and the organism
What do reactions require?
Energy and carbon and other key nutrients
In which forms can organisms harvest energy from nature?
Energy can be harvest via light or chemical energy in Phototrophs or chemotrophs & energy is harvested via carbon and organic carbon dioxide in autotrophs or heterotrophs.
Another term for fueling reactions
catabolism or break down metabolism
The opposite of fueling reactions
anabolism or build up metabolism
Which three products are formed during fueling reactions?
ATP: Energy conservation
Reducing Power: Electrons for chemical reactions
Precursor metabolites: Carbon skeletons for biosynthesis
What are the substrates for catabolism?
Energy and carbon sources.
Describe Catabolism
Breakdown of molecules
Energy conservation
Conservation in the form of ATP
Describe anabolism
Synthesis of macromolecules
- Proteins
- Nucleic acids
- Carbohydrates
- Complex lipids
Assembly of macromolecules into cell components
A broad summary of metabolism:
Substrates are broken down to get to carbon and energy (catabolism), which is then used for the synthesis of cellular components (anabolism).
ATP
ATP is a nucleotide
Molecule where energy is conserved
Energy is stored between bonds of phosphate molecules
ADP and ATP
Energy is consumed when phosphate is added to ADP to form ATP.
Energy is released in a strongly exergonic reaction when phosphate is removed from ATP. (hydrolysis)
This energy is then used to drive endergonic reactions, usually associated with anabolism.
Process of ADP to ATP is called
phosphorylation
Process of ATP to ADP is called
hydrolysis
Name the four electron carriers that are crucial for energy generation in the cell.
NAD+, FAD, NADH and Coenzyme Q
Electrons donated from reactions
higher up in the tower to reactions lower down in the tower.
or with more negative to more positive standard reduction potentials
Four steps of the electron transport chain
- Electrons are harvested and carried to the transport system.
- Electrons provide energy to pump protons across the membrane.
- Oxygen joins with protons to form water.
- Protons diffuse back down their concentration gradient, driving the synthesis of ATP.
Cellular respiration steps
- Glycolysis
- Oxidation of Pyruvate
- Citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle)
- Electron transport chain
Glycolosis
Break up of glucose
Occurs in cytoplasm
Glycolysis takes glucose and turns it into Pyruvic acid
ATP
Currency of cellular energy
Adenine, ribosome and three phosphate molecules
Three pathways of glycolysis
The Embden-Meyerhof Pathway - EMP (most common)
The Entner-Doudoroff pathway
Pentose Phophate pathway
The Embden-Meyerhoff Pathway
- 2 ATP molecules are consumed to phosphorylate the subsequent intermediate molecules.
2.
Amphibiotic pathways
The pathway can be catabolic or anabolic.
Key takeaways of Pentose-phosphate pathway
- Can run concurrently with the EM pathway
- It does not require the presence of oxygen
- Plays an important role in anabolism
- It generates NADPH
- Pathway is important for organisms growing on C5 sugar such as xylose as main carbon source.