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BIO 101 SPRING 2018 Extra Credit Activity 1 Let us say you had a bite of apple.

ID: 199626 • Letter: B

Question

BIO 101 SPRING 2018 Extra Credit Activity 1 Let us say you had a bite of apple. Your digestion system digested i for you and finally a glucose molecule has become available. Your circulatory system has brought this glucose molecule along oxygen to your brain celis working on this biology activity right now and are in need of energy. Explain briefly but completely how ATP is produced to energize your brain cells. The following diagram of cellular respiration would guide you. In your essay, you must use terms: dehydrogenase, NAD, FAD, COa. O2 H", protein complexes, chemiosmosis and ATP synthase in addition to those written in this diagram. Ignore the ones in brackets and the number of ATP

Explanation / Answer

The process of ATP production will start with the gycolysis of the glucose molecule produced from the digestion of apple. The glycolysis will result in the oxidation of the glucose to pyruvate through a series of reactions, one of the reaction i.e., conversion of Glyceraldehyde-3- Phosphate to 1,3 Bisphosphoglycerate is catalyzed by glyceraldehyde-3-phospho dehydrogenase. The end product of glycolysis is pyruvate which is converted into acetyl-co-A by pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, a multienzyme complex. The acetyl-co-A enters into the mitochondria to start the TCA or citric acid cycle which involves sequential oxidation-reduction reactions and culminates in the production of CO2 and H2O. TCA cycle comprises of many reactions, among which isocitrate dehydrogenase, alpha-ketoglutarate complex and malate dehydrogenase uses NAD+ as co-factor resulting in the production of NADH+H+. Another enzyme succinate dehydrogenase uses FAD+ as cofactor and produces FADH2. NADH+H+ and FADH2 produced in TCA cycle undergo oxidation in electron transport chain yielding 2 and 3 molecules of ATP respectively. Electron transport chain (ETC) consists of a series of protein complexes that transfer electrons from electron donors to electron acceptors via redox reactions, and couples this electron transfer with the transfer of protons (H+ ions) across a membrane. This creates an electrochemical proton gradient that drives the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The ATP production in ETC is best explained by chemiosmotic theory according to which ATP synthase is the enzyme that makes ATP by chemiosmosis. It allows H+ to pass through the membrane and uses the free energy difference to phosphorylate adenosine diphosphate (ADP), making ATP. The energy from the electron movement through electron transport chain cross through ATP synthase which allows the proton to pass through them and use this free energy difference to photophosphorylate ADP making ATP. The conversion of O2 to water is required to generate the proton gradient.