BIOCHEMICAL EQUILIBRIA

Fadwa Odeh
Advanced Physical Chemistry
 OUTLINE
• Bioenergetics overview
• Glycolysis
• The Krebs cycle
• Electron transport chain
• Oxidative phosphorylation
• Binding equilibria
• Independent site binding
• Cooperative site binding
• Protein allosterism
• Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC)
ENERGY SOURCES IN BIOLOGICAL
SYSTEMS
 BIOENERGETICS
• A description on how cells produce energy (apparatus)
• There are two types of cells, Aerobic and Anaerobic cells
• In Aerobic cells, O2 oxidizes glucose via oxidation reduction
processes to produce CO2 and H2O and ATP
• Aerobic respiration is more efficient since it produces more ATP
• In Anaerobic cells, glucose is transformed to pyruvic acid in the cell
fluids
• Mainly there are three processes:
- Glycolysis
- Krebs cycle
- Electron transport chaim
 GLYCOLYSIS
• It is the metabolic pathway that converts glucose to pyruvate
• The Gibbs energy for these processes inside the cell (∆G’) is calculated
using the equation ∆G’ = ∆Go + RTlnQ
Reagent Concentration (uM)

Glucose 5x103

G6P 83

F6P 14

FBP 31

DHAP 138

GAP 18.5

3PG 118

2PG 29.5

PEP 23

Pyr 51

ATP 1850

ADP 138

Pi 1x103

Lact 2.9x103
 THE KREBS CYCLE
• Also called Citric acid cycle
• It is part of the respiratory system (in addition to electron
transport chain)
• Occurs in the plasma or the membrane of the prokaryotic
cell
• Prokaryotic cells are cells that its genetic material in NOT
confined in the nucleus
• Respiration occurs in Mitochondria (one is mitochondrion)
• Krebs cycle occurs in the matrix
 ELECTRON TRANSPORT CHAIN (ETC)

• The purpose of the electron transport chain (ETC)

is to release energy by moving electrons obtained
by the degradation of the Carbon skeleton of
organic compounds
• These electrons are carried through the cell by
reducing agents (such as NADH and FADH2)
• These reactions (RedOx reactions) are associated
by the inner membrane of Mitochondria
• ETC proceeds via four complesxes
 ETC-COMPLEX I

• Complex I is called the NADH-Co-Q

oxidoreductase
• Co-enzyme Q (Co-Q) also called ubiquinone
carries a pair of electrons in its full reduced state
Co-QH2 (called hydroquinone)
 ETC-COMPLEX II

• Also called succinate CoQ oxidoreductase

• Uses components of the Krebs cycle to reduce CoQ
 ETC- COMPLEX III

• CoQH2-cytochrome c oxidoreductase