General Biology I

COUPLED REACTION
PROCESSES
Introduction to Metabolism
Overview:

• The living cell is a miniature chemical factory where

thousands of reactions occur

• The cell extracts energy and applies energy to perform

work

• Metabolism is the totality of an organism’s chemical

reactions. It is an emergent property of life that arises from
interactions between molecules within the cell
Introduction: Metabolism

• A metabolic pathway begins with a specific molecule and

ends with a product
Introduction: Metabolism

• Catabolic pathways release energy by breaking down

complex molecules into simpler compounds (example:
cellular respiration)

• Anabolic pathways consume energy to build complex

molecules from simpler ones (example: protein synthesis)
Introduction: Energy

• Energy is the capacity to cause change; it can be converted

from one form to another
• What forms of energy do you know?

• Thermodynamics
❑ 1st law - Energy can be transferred and transformed, but it
cannot be created or destroyed
❑ 2nd law - Every energy transfer or transformation increases the
entropy (disorder) of the universe
 Heat CO2
+
Chemical H2 O
energy

(a) First law of thermodynamics (b) Second law of thermodynamics

Introduction: Free Energy

• A living system’s free energy is energy that can do work

when temperature and pressure are uniform, as in a living
cell
• The change in free energy (∆G) during a process is related
to the change in enthalpy, or change in total energy (∆H),
change in entropy (∆S), and temperature in Kelvin (T):
∆G = ∆H – T∆S
• Only processes with a negative ∆G are spontaneous
• Spontaneous processes can be harnessed to perform work
Introduction: Free Energy

• Free energy is a measure of a system’s instability, its

tendency to change to a more stable state
• During a spontaneous change, free energy decreases and
the stability of a system increases
• Equilibrium is a state of maximum stability
• A process is spontaneous and can perform work only when
it is moving toward equilibrium
Introduction: Free Energy
Introduction: Metabolic Reactions

• An exergonic reaction proceeds with a net release of free

energy and is spontaneous

• An endergonic reaction absorbs free energy from its

surroundings and is nonspontaneous
Exergonic Reaction
• spontaneous or favorable
chemical reactions
• the products are at a lower
energy level tan the
reactants.
• the reactions release more
energy than what was
required initially.
Endergonic Reaction
• nonspontaneous
• usually occur in organisms,
because they need to
synthesize complex
molecules
• i.e., fats, amino acids, and
sugars.
 Equilibrium and Metabolism
• Reactions in a closed system eventually reach equilibrium
and then do no work
• Cells are not in equilibrium; they are open systems
experiencing a constant flow of materials
• A defining feature of life is that metabolism is never at
equilibrium
• A catabolic pathway in a cell releases free energy in a series
of reactions
ATP
ATP
• ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the cell’s energy shuttle

• ATP is composed of ribose (a sugar), adenine (a

nitrogenous base), and three phosphate groups

• In 1929, Karl Lohmann ( 1898-1978), a German biochemist,

was given credit for discovering ATP from extracts of
muscles and liver
Gamma Beta Alpha Adenine
phosphate phosphate phosphate
group group group

Phosphate groups
Ribose
ATP Hydrolysis
• The bonds between the phosphate groups of ATP’s tail can
be broken by hydrolysis

• Energy is released from ATP when the terminal phosphate

bond is broken

• This release of energy comes from the chemical change to

a state of lower free energy, not from the phosphate bonds
themselves
ATP Hydrolysis
• The bonds between the phosphate groups of ATP’s tail can be
broken by hydrolysis

• Energy is released from ATP when the terminal phosphate

bond (bond between the beta and the gamma phosphate
groups) is broken

• This release of energy comes from the chemical change to a

state of lower free energy, not from the phosphate bonds
themselves
ATP
Hydrolysis P P P

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

H2O

Pi + P P + Energy

Inorganic phosphate Adenosine diphosphate (ADP)

ATP
Hydrolysis
• A chemical reaction
in which a molecule
of water breaks the
bond between the
beta and the gamma
phosphate groups of
an ATP
ATP
Hydrolysis and
Synthesis
Coupled Reaction
Reaction Coupling
• A cell does three main kinds of work:
• Chemical
• Transport
• Mechanical
• To do work, cells manage energy resources by energy
coupling, the use of an exergonic process to drive an
endergonic one
• Most energy coupling in cells is mediated by ATP
Reaction Coupling
• A strategy employed by the cell, in which an energetically
favorable reaction (like ATP hydrolysis) is directly linked
with an energetically unfavorable (endergonic) reaction

• ATP powers cellular work by coupling exergonic reactions

to endergonic reactions
Reaction Coupling
• When two reactions are coupled, they can be added
together to give an overall reaction, and the ΔG of this
reaction will be the sum of the ΔG values of the individual
reactions.
• As long as the overall ΔG is negative, both reactions can
take place. Even a very endergonic reaction can occur if it is
paired with a very exergonic one (such as hydrolysis of
ATP).
Reaction Coupling
• For instance, we can add up a pair of generic reactions
coupled by a shared intermediate, B, as follows:
Reaction Coupling
• Example: formation of sucrose
Reaction Coupling
• Example: formation of
sucrose

How is the energy

released in ATP hydrolysis
channeled into the
production of a sucrose
molecule?
 Reaction Coupling
• Example: formation of sucrose

A. When reaction coupling involves

ATP, the shared intermediate is
often a phosphorylated molecule
(a molecule to which one of the
phosphate groups of ATP has been
attached)
 Reaction Coupling
• Example: formation of sucrose

B. Two reactions will happen.

1) a phosphate group is transferred
from ATP to glucose, forming a
phosphorylated glucose
intermediate (glucose-P)
2) the glucose-P intermediate reacts
with fructose to form sucrose
Reaction Coupling
• Example: formation of sucrose

B. Two reactions will happen.

1) a phosphate group is transferred from ATP
to glucose, forming a phosphorylated
glucose intermediate (glucose-P)
2) the glucose-P intermediate reacts with
fructose to form sucrose