INTRODUCTION TO METABOLISM

1) The difference between energy and work is that energy is the ability to do work whereas
work is the transfer of energy from one body to another.

2) Protein synthesis is an anabolic reaction. Digestion is a catabolic reaction. DNA synthesis

is an anabolic reaction. Photosynthesis is an anabolic reaction and cellular respiration is a
catabolic reaction (breaks glucose into smaller molecules).

3) Metabolism is the sum of all anabolic and catabolic processes in a cell or organism.

4) Organisms need to continually harness energy so that they can always convert between
different forms of energy like ATP and ADP.

ENZYMES

1) A catalyst is a substance that speeds endergonic and exergonic reactions by lowering the
activation energy but it does change the value of delta G. The catalyst is also not
consumed in the process of the reaction as it is inputed as a reactant and then outputted
later on as a product.

2)

3) An enzyme is a substance that does not act as a reactants or products, thereby meaning
that it doesn’t affect the value of the free-energy of the system. It cannot change an
endergonic reaction into an exergonic reaction.

4) The induced fit of an enzyme activity simply describes an enzyme as a dynamic protein
molecule that changes the shape to better accommodate the substrate.

5) An enzyme is able to lower the activation barrier of a biochemical reaction by providing

an alternative step for the reaction, one with a lower activation energy barrier.

6) A competitive inhibitor is a substance that is very similar to the enzyme’s substrate. It is

able to enter the enzyme’s binding site and block the normal substrate from binding. This
process is reversible and can be fixed by simply increasing the concentration of the
substrate. A noncompetitive inhibitor is a substance that attaches to another site on the
enzyme, causing a change in the enzyme’s shape. This changes the enzyme’s site in a
way that causes it to lose affinity for the substrate.
 7) The scrotum of the testes help regulate bodily temperatures in the way that if the testes
are cold, the scrotum tenses and brings close the testes to the penis to warm up. When it
becomes too hot, the scrotum relaxes, allowing heat to dissipate. Two lifestyle choices
that can affect sperm and hormone production is not consuming enough lipids
(specifically, sterols) and by doing certain drugs.

8) After an enzyme has catalyzed a reaction, the enzyme remains unchanged and is able to
redo its performance over and over again.

SUMMARY OF CELLULAR RESPIRATION

1A) What is the source of carbon atoms in the carbon dioxide that we exhale?

The carbon atoms are deprived from the glucose molecule, which splits apart after participating
in aerobic respiration.

1B) At the end of cellular respiration, where are the hydrogen atoms of the glucose molecule?

They are used to form water, a byproduct of cellular respiration.

1C) Define oxidation to explain how glucose is oxidized in the respiration process.

Oxidization is a term used to describe a chemical reaction in which an atom loses one or more
electrons. Therefore, oxidation is used to help break down the chemical bonds within the glucose
molecule to release a ton of energy. 12 hydrogen atoms break away from glucose and attach to
six oxygen atoms to form 6 water molecules. During this process, hydrogen carries the oxygen
away from carbon atoms in glucose to oxygen atoms. As a covalent bond forms, the
electronegative oxygen leeches the electrons from hydrogen, causing the overall molecule to lose
some energy to its surroundings. Then, other oxygen molecules bind to the free carbon, causing
the oxygen to once again become electronegative — resulting in the release of free energy.
Overall, the oxidation of glucose involves the movement of electrons from a low area of
electronegativity to an area of high electronegativity.

2A) Photoautotrophs are organisms that transform light energy into the chemical potential energy
in glucose and other carbohydrates. Examples are plants and other photosynthetic
microorganisms. Heterotrophs, on the other hand, are organisms that rely on autotrophs for
energy. These organisms obtain energy and building molecules by ingesting the bodies of
autotrophs or through a food chain, the bodies or remnants of fellow heterotrophs. Some
organisms like archaeabacteria are able to eat inorganic matter to extract sulfur and iron. These
organisms are called chemoautotrophs — which means that they build organic compounds
needed to live without using any light energy. Except for chemoautotrophs, are organisms use
glucose as energy.

2B) Label each organism as heterotrophic or autotrophic.

(a) dry yeast: heterotroph

(b) fern: autotroph
(c) lichen: autotroph
(d) amoeba: heterotroph
(e) Anabaena: autotroph

3A) The diagram in figure 5 is inaccurate because it represents a state where the reaction
absorbed energy which is very wrong! Cellular respiration releases energy and also requires
some form of activation energy to enable the reaction to occur.

3B)

1) For the cells to produce one molecule of ATP via substrate-level phosphorylation, the
body needs to compass one molecule of ADP (adenosine) and a phosphate group
transferred by a phosphate-containing compound.

2) In eukaryotic cells, glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm. Glycolysis is a process used to

describe the first 10 reactions of cellular respiration. Starting with glucose, glycolysis
produces two 3-caebon pyruvate molecules. The carbon backbone is essentially split from
6 into 3 molecules. In general, glycolysis refers to the process of harnessing energy in
which a glucose molecule is broken into 2 pyruvate molecules in the cytoplasm of a cell.

3) What stores more potential energy: 1 molecule of glucose or 2 molecules of pyruvate.

The one molecule of glucose stores much more potential energy because it is going
through the process of glycolysis and therefore — requires much more energy to produce
its product. Also, if you can compare the reactants and products on a potential energy
diagram, you’ll realize that the glucose has more potential energy than the pyruvate
molecules — further justifying my answer.

4) The final two products of glycolysis are 2 pyruvate molecules, 2 ATP molecules, and 2
NADH molecules. From these products, the 2 pyruvate molecules are then transported to
the mitochondria for further processing.

5) Substrate-level phosphorylation involves the formation of ATP directly in an enzyme-

catalyzed reaction. In the process, a phosphate-containing compound transfers a
phosphate group directly to the ADP molecules, forming ATP. For each glucose
molecule processed, 4 ATP molecules are generated, with 2 in glycolysis and 2 in the
Krebs cycle.

Oxidative phosphorylation refers to the process in which ATP is formed indirectly. This
process is oxidative because it involves a number of sequential redox reactions, with
oxygen being the final electron acceptor. Oxidative phosphorylation beings with NAD+
removes 2 hydrogen atoms from a portion of the original glucose molecule. In the
process, two electrons and one proton attach to the NAD+, reducing it to NADH while
the remaining hydrogen atom becomes an ion. In general, oxidative phosphorylation is
when ATP is generated from the oxidation of NADH and FADH2 and the subsequent
transfer of electrons and pumping of protons.

6. ADP and ATP differ in structure and in free energy. ATP contains 3 phosphate groups
with energy stored in the bonds between the phosphates whereas ADP contains only 2
phosphate groups. When the third phosphate is removed from ATP, we get ADP and
adding a phosphate to ADP converts the molecule into ATP. Having that extra phosphate
group adds more of a charge to the ATP molecule, allowing it to have more energy
within its bonds.

7. Skin cell, fat cell (breaking down fats), nerve cell (Na AND K pump), and heart
muscle cell.

8. Mitochondria possess a double membrane composed of a smooth outer membrane and

a highly folded inner membrane. The folds of the inner membrane are called cristae,
which performs many functions associated with cellular respiration. It contains enzymes,
proteins, and more that are attached to its inner surface or attached to its lipid bilayer that
participate in the reactions of respiration. Within the inner membrane are two
compartments — the matrix which is a protein rich fluid that fills the innermost space of
the mitochondria and a fluid-filled intermembrane space that lies between the inner and
outer membrane. Both of these compartments play a major role in aerobic respiration.
The outer membrane has a similar role to the cell membrane. The membrane inside is
folded into cristae, which increases the surface area to hold more protein molecules in the
membrane and the membrane proteins carry vital nutrients that help with producing ATP,
the main source of metabolic energy.

9. Without enzymes, cellular respiration would take a very long time and thus — the
body needs specific enzymes to help lower the activation energy barrier and allow each
reaction to accomplish the subsequent step towards the pathway of metabolism.
If an organism lacked the hexokinase enzyme, which prevents the first step of glycolysis,
the glucose molecule would ben unable to phosphorylate.

10. The function of NAD+ and FAD in cellular respiration is to transfer their free
energies to ATP molecules using coenzymes that help this transportation happen. NAD+
and FAD act as electron shuttle buses, where NAD+ acts as an electron and hydrogen
carrier in some oxidation-reduction reactions and FAD is a hydrogen acceptor molecule
in the Krebs cycle. They eventually donate these energies to ATP molecules.
11. The final products of aerobic cellular respiration are 6 molecules of CO2, 6 molecules
of H2O, and up to 30 molecules of ATP.

12. Aerobic respiration is much efficient than glycolysis just because aerobic respiration
captures approximately 32% of the available free energy to glucose. An anaerobic
respiration produces 2 molecules of ATP whereas an aerobic respiration reaction
produces 28+ molecules of ATP.

13. The rest of the energy exists as potential energy or more so — NADH and FADH2.

14. Hydrogens of a glucose molecules provide electrons for cellular respiration.

The electron transport complexes set up a proton gradient in response to electron flow in
a very complicated way. NADH and FADH2 pass electrons to embedded proteins in the
inner membrane of the mitochondria. The energy of electrons is used to pump H+ into
through the inner membrane from the matrix to the intermembrane space. This creates an
H+ reservoir/gradient. The H+ can only flow back into the matrix through the ATP
synthase. As the H+ go through, energy from them is used to join ADP and Pi to create
ATP. This is called chemiosmosis.

The transfer of a pair of electrons from NAHD to oxygen through ETC is an exergonic
process and much of this energy becomes stored in the electrochemical gradient and will
be used to power ATP synthesis in chemiosmosis.

Chemiosmosis was discovered by Peter Mitchell.

15. The difference between an electron carrier and a terminal electron acceptor is that
carriers take electrons from one place to another in the system whereas the acceptor takes
electrons from the system.

The final electron acceptor in aerobic respiration is oxygen.

16. The equation does not describe anaerobic respiration but only aerobic respiration,
where the system involves oxygen.

17. CO2 does not serve as a source of free energy in living systems because the molecule
has very strong bonds and does not have any chemicals that will react with to release the
molecule’s potential energy.