Chapter 6; Definition Questions Flashcards
An Introduction to Metabolism
The capacity to do work or create change within a cell.
Energy
The study of how living organisms, including cells, acquire, transform, and utilize energy through various metabolic pathways.
Bioenergetics
The sum of all chemical reactions that occur within a cell. Providing the cell with energy and materials for growth, reproduction, and health.
Metabolism
Energy that can do work when temperature and pressure are uniform, as in a living cell.
Free Energy
A series of connected chemical reactions that feed one another.
Metabolic Pathway
Absorbs free energy from its surroundings and is nonspontaneous; products have more energy than reactants.
Endergonic Reactions
Proceeds with a net release of free energy and is spontaneous; reactants have more energy than products.
Exergonic Reactions
Release energy by breaking down complex molecules into simple compounds.
Catabolic Pathway
The reactant that an enzyme acts on.
Substrate
Consume energy to build complex molecules from simpler ones.
Anabolic Pathway
A catalytic protein.
Enzyme
A chemical agent that speeds up a reaction without being consumed by the reaction.
Catalyst
The initial energy needed to start a chemical reaction.
Energy of Activation
The specific region on an enzyme where substrate molecules bind and undergo a chemical reaction.
Active Site
The intermediate stage where the enzyme is actively interacting with its target molecule to facilitate a specific biochemical transformation.
Enzyme-Substrate Complex
