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Group Take Home Assignment 2 Biology 1610
Group Take Home Assignment 2 Biology 1610
Group Take Home Assignment 2 Biology 1610
Cassie McOmber;
Kayley Basden;
Diagram
Step 1: Glycolysis
Glycolysis is the process of splitting sugars. Glycolysis is the metabolic pathway that
converts glucose C6H12O6, into pyruvate, CH3COCOO + H. The free energy
released in this process is used to form the high-energy compounds ATP (adenosine
triphosphate) and NADH (reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). Glucose (a
six-carbon molecule) is split into three carbon sugars. The three carbon sugars are
then oxidized and rearranged to form two pyruvates. During the energy investment
phase of glycolysis, ATP is used. ATP is reproduced with some extra during the pay-
off phase. During the energy investment phase glucose uses ATP to create 2 ADP +
2 Phosphates. During the energy payoff phase ATP is produces by saturate-level
phosphorylation and NAD+ is reduced to NADH by electrons released from the
oxidation of glucose.
Misconceptions: The whole process of cellular respiration was mostly new to us,
so there was a lot about that we were unware of. For example, we were not sure
where exactly or how the ATP was made. Now we know that most parts of Cellular
respiration take place inside the mitochondria except for Glycolysis which takes
place in the cytoplasm and makes two ATP the rest of the ATP is made inside the
mitochondrion in both the citric acid cycle (2ATP) and the last step which is
oxidative phosphorylation (28-34 ATP) the ATP being produced by ATP Synthase
which is part of the inner mitochondrial membrane.
I (Cassie) thought that there was only two parts of cellular respiration Glycolysis
and the Electron Transport Chain. But now I know that there are four parts,
Glycolysis, linker step, Citric Acid Cycle, and Oxidative Phosphorylation. IF there
were only the two steps that I thought there were then we would make a lot less ATP
because the ETC would only have 2 NADH molecules per glucose and then in total
we would only make 4 ATP. With all of the steps we can make up to 38 ATP.
Why do we need the constant input of sunlight in order for life to survive? Well
because through every process of change, chemical or otherwise we lose energy in
a from that cannot be used this is called Entropy. Because the universe is constantly
moving from a state of order to disorder, and life by its very definition is highly
ordered we require energy to maintain this order. Plants can absorb sunlight in a
process called photosynthesis which take the energy of the sun and converts it into
usable energy for 1st and 2nd level consumers and decomposers. Because life is
ordered moving towards a state of disordered all of that energy cannot be
continuously cycled because of entropy. So, because we lose some energy every
time we perform a reaction plants must consume energy from the sun and then we
must eat that converted energy.