The Cell

(energy)
 • All living organisms need energy to
grow and reproduce, maintain their
Energy structures, and respond to their
environments.
• The energy cannot be created, it can
only pass from one form to another.
• The key energy transformations in the
living organisms are cellular
respiration in all cells and
photosynthesis in photosynthetic cells.
• Cellular respiration and photosynthesis
are direct opposite reactions.
• Energy from the sun enters a plant
and converts
into glucose during photosynthesis.
Some of the energy is used to make
ATP in the mitochondria during cellular
respiration, and some is lost to the
environment as heat.
 Energy

• Energy – the ability to do work

• Energy can take many different forms: for instance, we’re all familiar with
light, heat, and electrical energy.
• Types of energy that are particularly important in biological systems are
kinetic and potential energy.
• Potential energy (stored energy) is the type of energy associated with an
object’s potential to do work. It is a stored energy that we can find in a
sugar, a lump of coal, a rock at the top of a hill. In organisms, energy is
stored in chemical bonds between molecule atoms, for example in sugar,
starch, and fat molecules.
• Kinetic energy is the energy that is actually used to do some work. An
example of this is burning coal, stone rolling downhill, root branching
through the ground. Kinetic energy affects matter by moving motion to
another matter.
 Energy
• Water behind a dam has potential energy.
Moving water, such as in a waterfall or a
rapidly flowing river, has kinetic energy. 
• How is kinetic energy used in everyday life?
• Running water has kinetic energy and it
is used to run water mills.
• Moving air has kinetic energy and is used to
derives windmills and push sailing boats,
similarly, a bullet fired from a gun has kinetic
energy and can penetrate into a target
because of its kinetic energy.
 Energy transformations

• Energy transformation (conversion) is

when energy changes from one form to another – like in a
hydroelectric dam that transforms the kinetic energy of
water into electrical energy.
•  A flashlight doesn't create light, the Sun doesn't create
heat, and a windmill doesn't create electricity. These are
examples of energy changing forms.
• Plants transform the Sun’s light energy into chemical energy
during the process of photosynthesis.
• Our body converts the chemical energy from food
molecules into energy that allows us to engage in various
activities.
 Catabolism and
anabolism
• Metabolism is the set of life-sustaining chemical processes that enables organisms transform the chemical energy stored in molecules into
energy that can be used for cellular processes.
• A metabolic pathway is a series of connected chemical reactions that feed one another. The pathway takes in one or more starting molecules
and, through a series of intermediates, converts them into products.
• In most energy transformations in the body, chemical reactions of oxidation and reduction occur.
• Catabolism refers to metabolic reactions that break down larger molecules to smaller ones. Catabolism usually involves oxidation (the
release of electrons from molecules).
• Anabolism refers to metabolic reactions that synthesize larger molecules from smaller ones. Anabolism usually involves reduction (receiving
electrons).
• Catabolic reactions release energy and anabolic reactions require energy.
• Photosynthesis, which builds sugars out of smaller molecules, is a "building up," or anabolic, pathway. In contrast, cellular respiration breaks
sugar down into smaller molecules and is a "breaking down," or catabolic, pathway.
• The oxidation and reduction reactions in the cell proceed simultaneously, because if one compound is oxidized the other must be reduced
and vice versa. Compounds that are reduced have more energy (an example is reduced carbon-methane which is explosive while in the
oxidized isn’t).
 Catabolism and
anabolism
• Catabolic reactions break down large organic molecules into
smaller molecules, releasing the energy contained in the chemical
bonds.
• These energy releases (conversions) are not 100 percent
efficient.
•  Approximately 40 percent of energy yielded from catabolic
reactions is directly transferred to the high-energy molecule
adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
• ATP, the energy currency of cells, can be used immediately to
power molecular machines that support cell, tissue, and organ
function. This includes building new tissue and repairing damaged
tissue. ATP can also be stored to fulfill future energy demands.
• The remaining 60 percent of the energy released from catabolic
reactions is given off as heat, which tissues and body fluids absorb.
• Therefore, the organism, which catabolically receives energy, must
take in much more food than the amount of molecules is produced
by anabolism.
 Energy flow

• A food chain shows how energy flows from one

organism to another.
• In general, energy flows from the Sun to
producers and then to consumers. 
• When one organism eats another, the matter, or
carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements,
are transferred from one to the other.
• These elements move from the producers, to the
consumers, and eventually to the decomposers,
cycling the matter through the ecosystem.
 ATP (Adenosine triphosphate)
• Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is energy-carrying molecule found in the cells of all living things. 
• ATP captures chemical energy obtained from the breakdown of food molecules and releases it to
fuel other cellular processes.
• Each molecule of ATP contains:
• one molecule of the purine base, adenine
• one molecule of the pentose, ribose adenosine

• three phosphate groups triphosphate

• The mechanism that enables the ATP synthesis consists of two related processes: the transfer of
electrons across the membrane and the pumping of hydrogen ions across the membrane.
 How ATP releases energy

• The 3 phosphate groups are joined together by 2 high energy bonds.

• ATP can be hydrolyzed to break a bond which releases a large amount of energy.
• Hydrolysis of ATP to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) is catalysed by the enzyme ATPase.
• When one phosphate group is removed, energy is released, and ATP is converted to adenosine diphosphate
(ADP). Likewise, energy is also released when a phosphate is removed from ADP to form adenosine
monophosphate (AMP).
• The addition of phosphate to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to form adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is called
phosphorylation.
• In the respiratory chain, the last electron recipient is oxygen. That is why we call this phosphorylation oxidative
phosphorylation.
• If light is required for ATP synthesis, as in photosynthesis, the process is called photophosphorylation.
 https://youtu.be/rg8gpzFLQ-E

Chemiosmosis
• Energy released as electrons pass down electron
transfer chains and enables proteins embedded in
membranes of each thylakoid or crista to pump protons
(H+) through the membrane:
• through inner membrane of crista into space between inner
and outer membrane (the intermembrane space)
• through thylakoid into space in thylakoid (thylakoid space)
• This creates a proton gradient across these membranes.
• As a result, protons diffuse down this proton gradient:
• from intermembrane space into matrix of mitochondrion
• from thylakoid space into stroma of chloroplast
• The only place they can diffuse is through ATP synthase
— an enzyme embedded in these membranes.
• The diffusion of protons through ATP synthase provides
it with the energy to produce ATP from ADP and Pi.
 Coenzymes

• A coenzyme is an organic non-protein compound that binds

with an enzyme to catalyze a reaction.
• Coenzymes are often broadly called cofactors, but they are
chemically different.
• These are reusable non-protein molecules that contain carbon
(organic). Most are vitamins, vitamin derivatives, or often
nucleotide derived.
• A coenzyme cannot function alone, but can be reused several
times when paired with an enzyme.
• Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and flavin adenine
dinucleotide (FAD+) are two cofactors that are involved
in cellular respiration, and in the process of photosynthesis
Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+).
 Enzymes
• A substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without being a
reactant is called a catalyst.
• The catalysts for biochemical reactions that happen in living
organisms are called enzymes.
• Enzymes are usually proteins, though some ribonucleic acid (RNA)
molecules act as enzymes too.
• Enzymes perform the critical task of lowering a reaction's activation
energy - the amount of energy that must be put in for the reaction
to begin. Because activating metabolic reactions without enzymes
would require an amount of heat that would kill most cells.
• An enzyme will interact with only one type of substance or group of
substances, called the substrate, to catalyze a certain kind of
reaction. Because of this specificity, enzymes often have been named
by adding the suffix “-ase” to the substrate’s name (as in urease,
which catalyzes the breakdown of urea).
 Enzymes

• Each enzyme has a region on its surface called the active site.

This is a cleft in the protein surface where the substrate binds.
It has a shape that fits the substrate like a glove fits a hand or
a lock fits a key.
• When an enzyme binds its substrate it forms an enzyme-
substrate complex.
• One of the important properties of enzymes is that they
remain ultimately unchanged by the reactions they catalyze.
After an enzyme is done catalyzing a reaction, it releases its
products (substrates).
• Enzymes are highly sensitive to pH and temperature. Very
high temperatures (above 40 ֯C) may cause an enzyme
to denature, losing its shape and activity.
Questions?