Cell respiration

IMAT Preparation
The need for energy in living organisms

• All living organisms require a continuous supply of energy

to stay alive

• Where does this energy come from?

1. Light energy

2. Chemical potential energy (energy stored in nutrient

molecules
Photosynthesis

• Transfer of light energy to chemical potential energy

• Almost all life on earth depend on photosynthesis, either

directly or indirectly

• Supplies living organisms with two essential

requirements: an energy supply and usable carbon
compounds.
Autotrophs vs heterotrophs
• All organisms need a source of carbon

• Autotrophs: organisms that can use an inorganic carbon source in the

form of carbon dioxide

• Heterotrophs: organisms that need a ready-made organic supply of

carbon

• Organic molecules:

1. Building bricks

2. Represent chemical potential energy

• Heterotrophs depend on autotrophs for both materials and energy

ATP - ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE
Structure & function
• A molecule of ATP consists of
adenosine (the nucleotide adenine
plus ribose) plus three phosphates.

• Unstable molecule: the three

phosphates in ATP are all negative
charged and repel one another.

• When one phosphate group is

removed from ATP by hydrolysis, a
more stable molecule ADP results.

• The change from a less stable

molecule to a more stable
molecule, always releases energy.

• ATP provides energy for all cells

activities by transferring
phosphates from ATP to another
molecule.
 Cell respiration

The means by which cells extract energy stored in food and transfer
that energy to molecules of ATP

*an oxidative process

Anaerobic and aerobic respiration

• Oxygen not present - anaerobic respiration: glycolysis is

followed by either alcoholic fermentation or lactic acid
fermentation.

• Oxygen present - aerobic respiration: glycolysis is only

the first phase of aerobic respiration. It is followed by the
Citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle), the electron transport
chain and oxidative phosphorylation
Glycolysis
• A ten step process

• Breaks down 1 molecule of glucose into 2 three-carbon molecules

of pyruvate or pyruvic acid and releases 4 molecules of ATP

• The Ea for glycolysis is 2 ATP

• The glycolysis of one molecule of glucose results in a net gain of 2

ATP.

• Occurs in the cytoplasm

• Produces ATP without using oxygen.

• Glycolysis releases only one-fourth of the energy stored
in glucose the reaction is critical.

• The end product, pyruvate, is the raw material for the

Krebs cycle with is the next step in aerobic respiration.

• ATP is produced by substrate level phosphorylation - by

direct enzymatic transfer of a phosphate to ADP.

• The enzyme that catalyses the third step, PFK, is an

allosteric enzyme. It inhibits glycolysis when the cell
contains enough app and does not need to produce any
more. If ATP is present in a cell in large quantities it
inhibits PFK by altering the conformation of that enzyme
thus stopping glycolysis. [ Watch video about enzymes ]
Anaerobic respiration - fermentation

• Anaerobic (no oxygen) catabolic process

• Glycolysis + alcohol or lactic acid fermentation.

• Botulinum (the bacterium that causes a form of food

poisoning, botulism) releases energy from food by
anaerobic respiration.

• Two types of anaerobes: facultative anaerobes and

obligate anaerobes (ex. clostridium)
• Fermentation can generate ATP during anaerobic
respiration only as long as there is an adequate supply
of NAD+ to accept electrons during glycolysis.
Without some mechanism to convert NADH back to
NAD+, glycolysis would shut down.

• Fermentation consists of glycolysis plus the reactions

that regenerate NAD+. Two types of fermentation are:

1. Alcohol fermentation

2. Lactic acid fermentation.

Alcohol fermentation (or simply fermentation)

• Process by which certain cells convert pyruvate from

glycolysis into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide in the
absence of oxygen and in the process oxidise NADH
back to NAD+

• Bread baking industry: yeast carries out fermentation and

produces CO2 which causes bread to rise.

• The beer, liquor and wine industry: yeast ferments sugar

into ethyl alcohol
Lactic acid fermentation

• Pyruvate from glycolysis is reduced to form lactic acid od

lactate.

• The dairy industry uses it to produce yogurt and cheese

• In the process NADH gets oxidised back to NAD+

• Human skeletal muscles carry out lactic acid fermentation

when blood cannot supply adequate oxygen to muscles
during strenuous exercise. Lactic acid in the muscle causes
fatigue and burning.

• Liver: lactic acid converted to pyruvate.

The link reaction

• Pyruvate passes by active transport from the cytoplasm,

through the outer and inner membranes of a
mitochondrion and into the mitochondrial matrix.

• Here it is: decarboxylated, dehydrogenated and

combined with CoA (coenzyme A) to give acetyl
coenzyme A (acetyl CoA)

• The hydrogen removed from pyruvate is transferred to

NAD+.
CoA
• Complex molecule

• Acts as a carrier of acetyl groups to the Krebs cycle

• Consists of:

a nucleoside (adenine plus ribose)

a vitamin: pantothenic acid

• Fatty acids from fat metabolism may also be used to
produce acetyl coenzyme A

• Fatty acids are broken down in the mitochondrion in a

cycle of reactions in which each turn of the cycle
shortens the fatty acid chain by a two-carbon acetyl
unit

• Each of there can react with CoA to produce acetyl

CoA

• CoA will now enter the Krebs cycle

Aerobic respiration: The citric acid cycle
Krebs cycle or citric acid cycle or tricarboxylic acid
cycle

• A closed pathway of enzyme controlled reactions:

Acetyl CoA combines with four-carbon compound

(oxaloacetate) to form a six-carbon compound (citrate)

The citrate is decarboxylated and dehydrogenated in a

series of steps, to yield CO2 which is given off as a waste
gas, and hydrogens which are accepted by the carriers
NAD and FAD

Oxaloacetate is regenerated to combine with another

acetyl CoA.
• For each turn of the cycle, two CO2 molecules are
produced, one FAD and three NAD molecules are
reduced, and one ATP molecule is generated via an
intermediate compound.

• Although part of aerobic respiration Krebs cycle make

no use of molecular oxygen.

• During Krebs cycle, ATP is produced by substrate level

phosphorylation - direct enzymatic transfer of a
phosphate to ADP. Very little energy is produced this
way compared with the amount produced by oxidative
phosphorylation

• Each turn releases: 3 NADH, 1 ATP, 1 FADH₂, 2 CO2

NAD & FAD
• Required for normal cell respiration

• Coenzymes that carry protons or electrons from

glycolysis and the Krebs cycle to the electron
transport chain

• Vitamin derivatives

• The enzyme NAD dehydrogenase and FAD

dehydrogenase facilitates the transfer of hydrogen
atoms from a substrate, to its coenzyme NAD⁺
NAD
• Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

• Made of two linked nucleotides:

1. ribose + adenine

2. ribose + nicotinamide ring (can

accept a hydrogen ion and two
electrons -> reduced)

• NAD + 2H ⇌ reduced NAD

• NAD⁺ + 2H ⇌ NADH⁺ + H⁺

• NAD⁺: oxidised form

• NADre or NADH: reduced form, carries

1 proton and 2 electrons
NADP
• Slightly different form of NAD

• Has a phosphate group instead

of the hydrogen on carbon 1 in
one of the ribose rings

• Nicotinamide adenine
dinucleotide phosphate

• A hydrogen carrier molecule

• Used in photosynthesis
FAD
• Flavin adenine dinucleotide

• similar in function to NAD

1. One nucleotide: ribose +

adenine

2. Second nucleotide: unusual

structure involving a linear
molecule, ribitol, instead of
ribose

• FAD: oxidised form

• FADH₂ or FADre: reduced form

The electron transport chain
• Proton pump

• In the mitochondria

• Couples two reactions: one exergonic and one

endergonic

• Uses energy released from the exergonic flow of

electrons to pump protons against a gradient from the
matrix to the outer compartment

• Proton gradient inside the mitochondrion

• No direct production of ATP

• ETC: a collection of molecules embedded in the cristae membrane of
the mitochondrion

• The are thousands copies of ETC in every mitochondrion due to the

extensive folding of the cristae membrane

• The ETC carries electrons delivered by NAD and FAD to oxygen, the
final electron receptor, through a series of redox reactions.

• The highly electronegative oxygen acts to pill electrons thought the ETC

• NADH delivers its electrons to a higher energy level in the chain that
does FADH2. As a result, NADH provides more energy for ATP
synthesis that does FAD. Each NADH produces 3 ATP molecules, while
each FADH2, 2 ATP molecules.

• ETC: consists mostly of cytochromes. These are proteins similar to

haemoglobin. Cytochromes are present in all aerobes and are used to
trace evolutionary relationships.
1. Hydrogens removed from reduced NAD & FAD

2. Each is split into its constituent proton (H⁺) and electron

(e⁻).

3. Electron transfered to the first of a series of electron

carriers

4. As an electron moves from one carrier at a higher energy

level to another one at a lower level, energy is released.

5. Energy usage: move protons from the matrix of the

mitochondrion to the inter membrane space. Therefore
higher [H+] in the inter membrane space than in the
matrix setting up a concentration gradient.
Chemiosmosis
6. Protons pass back into the matrix through protein
channels in the inner membrane, moving down their
concentration gradient. Associated with each
channel is the enzyme: ATP synthase. As the protons
pass through the channel, their electrical potential
energy is used to synthesise ATP.

7. Oxygen accepts one proton and an electron,

reducing it to water.

8. Aerobic respiration is complete.

Oxidative phosphorylation

• Phosphorylation of ADP into ATP by oxidation of the

carrier molecules NADH and FADH2