Cellular Respiration

Lecture 12
Module: Cell Biology
Topic: Cell Functions
Lecturer: Mr LU Vumazonke
 Energy and the Laws of
Thermodynamics
• Energy can exist in either two states:
kinetic or potential.
• Kinetic energy is the energy of motion.
• Potential energy is stored energy (energy that is
not doing work but has the capacity to do so).

• Energy can be transformed from one state

to another.
• Important to living organisms is the,
chemical energy. 2
 Energy and the Laws of
Thermodynamics...cont
• Chemical energy: a form of potential energy
stored in the chemical bonds of molecules.
• Chemical energy can be used when bonds are
rearranged to release kinetic energy.
• Much of the work done by living organisms
involves conversion of potential energy to
kinetic energy.
• This is governed by two laws of
thermodynamics.
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 Energy and the Laws of
Thermodynamics...cont
• The first law of thermodynamics states
that energy cannot be created or
destroyed.
• It can change from one form to another,
but the total amount of energy remains the
same.
• In short, energy is conserved.
• What happens when you burn petrol in
your cars?
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 Energy and the Laws of
Thermodynamics...cont
• The second law of thermodynamics, this
concerns the transformation of energy.
• The second law of thermodynamics states
that a closed system moves towards
increasing disorder, or entropy, as energy
is dissipated from the system.
• Entropy: the proportion of a system’s
energy that is not available for doing work.

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 Respiration
Organisms can be classified based on how
they obtain energy:
Autotrophs: are able to produce their own
organic molecules through photosynthesis
Heterotrophs: live on organic compounds
produced by other organisms
All organisms use cellular respiration to
extract energy from organic molecules.
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 Respiration
Cellular respiration is a series of reactions
that:
-are oxidations – loss of electrons
-are also dehydrogenations – lost
electrons are accompanied by hydrogen

Therefore, what is actually lost is a hydrogen

atom (1 electron, 1 proton).
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•The net equation for glucose breakdown is:
C6H12O6 + 6 O2 = 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + energy
•Glucose is a high-energy molecule; CO2 and H2O
are low-energy molecules; cellular respiration is
thus exergonic because it releases energy.
•Electrons are removed from substrates and
received by oxygen, which combines with H+ to
become water.
•Glucose is oxidized and O2 is reduced.
 Respiration
During redox reactions, electrons carry energy from one
molecule to another.

NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is an electron carrier.

-NAD accepts 2 electrons and 1 proton to become NADH
-the reaction is reversible

NAD+ and NADH

are dinucleotides
that serve as
electron carriers
in cellular
respiration

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 Respiration
During respiration, electrons are shuttled
through electron carriers to a final electron
acceptor.
aerobic respiration: final electron receptor
is oxygen (O2)
anaerobic respiration: final electron
acceptor is an inorganic molecule (not O2)
fermentation: final electron acceptor is an
organic molecule (pyruvate)
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 Respiration
Aerobic respiration:

C6H12O6 + 6O2 6CO2 + 6H2O

∆G = -686kcal/mol of glucose
∆G can be even higher than this in a cell
This large amount of energy must be released in small steps rather
than all at once.

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 Respiration
The goal of respiration is to produce ATP.
-energy is released from oxidation reaction
in the form of electrons
-electrons are shuttled by electron carriers
(e.g. NAD+) to an electron transport
chain (happens in mitochondrial inner
membrane)
-electron energy is converted to ATP at the
electron transport chain
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 Oxidation of Glucose
Cells are able to make ATP via:
1. substrate-level phosphorylation –
transferring a phosphate directly to ADP
from another molecule
2. oxidative phosphorylation – use of ATP
synthase and energy derived from a
proton (H+) gradient to make ATP

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•substrate-level phosphorylation –
transferring a phosphate directly to ADP
from another molecule
•happens during glycolysis

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 Oxidation of Glucose
The complete oxidation of glucose proceeds
in stages. These are the phases of cellular
respiration:
1. glycolysis
2. pyruvate oxidation (sometimes called the
prep reaction; connects glycolysis to Krebs
cycle)
3. Krebs cycle
4. electron transport chain
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 Glycolysis
Glycolysis converts glucose to pyruvate.
-a 10-step biochemical pathway
-occurs in the cytoplasm
-2 molecules of pyruvate are formed
-net production of 2 ATP molecules by
substrate-level phosphorylation
-2 NADH produced by the reduction of NAD+

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 Glycolysis
For glycolysis to continue, NADH must be
recycled to NAD+ by either:

1. aerobic respiration – occurs when oxygen

is available as the final electron acceptor

2. fermentation – occurs when oxygen is not

available; an organic molecule is the final
electron acceptor
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 Glycolysis
The fate of pyruvate depends on oxygen
availability.

When oxygen is present, pyruvate is

oxidized to acetyl-CoA which enters the
Krebs cycle
Without oxygen, pyruvate is reduced in
order to oxidize NADH back to NAD+
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 Pyruvate Oxidation
In the presence of oxygen, pyruvate is
oxidized.
-occurs in the mitochondria in eukaryotes
-occurs at the plasma membrane in
prokaryotes
-in mitochondria, a multienzyme complex
called pyruvate dehydrogenase
catalyzes the reaction
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 Pyruvate Oxidation
The products of pyruvate oxidation include:

-1 CO2
-1 NADH
-1 acetyl-CoA which consists of 2 carbons
from pyruvate attached to coenzyme A

Acetyl-CoA proceeds to the Krebs cycle.

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 Krebs Cycle
The Krebs cycle oxidizes the acetyl group
from pyruvate.
-occurs in the matrix of the mitochondria
-biochemical pathway of 9 steps
-first step:
acetyl group + oxaloacetate citrate
(2 carbons) (4 carbons) (6 carbons)

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 Krebs Cycle
The remaining steps of the Krebs cycle:
-release 2 molecules of CO2
-reduce 3 NAD+ to 3 NADH
-reduce 1 FAD (electron carrier) to FADH2
-produce 1 ATP
– The cycle turns twice for each original glucose molecule.
– The products of the cycle (per glucose molecule) are 4 CO2, 2 ATP, 6
NADH and 2 FADH2.

-regenerate oxaloacetate
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 Krebs Cycle
After glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, and the
Krebs cycle, glucose has been oxidized to:
- 6 CO2
- 4 ATP
- 10 NADH These electron carriers proceed
- 2 FADH2 to the electron transport chain.

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 Electron Transport Chain
The electron transport chain (ETC) is a
series of membrane-bound electron
carriers.
-embedded in the mitochondrial inner
membrane
-electrons from NADH and FADH2 are
transferred to complexes of the ETC
-each complex transfers the electrons to the
next complex in the chain
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 Electron Transport Chain
• As the electrons are transferred, some
electron energy is lost with each transfer.
• This energy is used to pump protons (H+)
across the membrane from the matrix to
the inner membrane space.
• A proton gradient is established.

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 Electron Transport Chain
The higher negative charge in the matrix
attracts the protons (H+) back from the
intermembrane space to the matrix.

The accumulation of protons in the

intermembrane space drives protons into
the matrix via diffusion.

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 Electron Transport Chain
• Most protons move back to the matrix through ATP
synthase.
• ATP synthase is a membrane-bound enzyme that uses
the energy of the proton gradient to synthesize ATP from
ADP + Pi.
• Chemiosmosis is the term used for ATP production tied
to an electrochemical (H+) gradient across a membrane
• Once formed, ATP molecules diffuse out of the
mitochondria through channel proteins.
• ATP is the energy currency for all living things; all
organisms must continuously produce high levels of ATP
to survive.
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 Energy Yield of Respiration
theoretical energy yields
- 38 ATP per glucose for bacteria
- 36 ATP per glucose for eukaryotes

actual energy yield

- 30 ATP per glucose for eukaryotes
- reduced yield is due to “leaky” inner
membrane and use of the proton gradient
for purposes other than ATP synthesis
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Electron Transport Chain

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18

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 Regulation of Respiration
Regulation of aerobic respiration is by
feedback inhibition.
-a step within glycolysis is allosterically
inhibited by ATP and by citrate
-high levels of NADH inhibit pyruvate
dehydrogenase
-high levels of ATP inhibit citrate synthetase

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 Respiration Without O2
Respiration occurs without O2 via either:

1. anaerobic respiration
-use of inorganic molecules (other than
O2) as final electron acceptor
2. fermentation
-use of organic molecules as final electron
acceptor (usually pyruvate)
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 Respiration Without O2
Anaerobic respiration by methanogens
-methanogens use CO2
-CO2 is reduced to CH4 (methane)

Anaerobic respiration by sulfur bacteria

-inorganic sulphate (SO4) is reduced to
hydrogen sulfide (H2S)

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 Respiration Without O2
Fermentation reduces organic molecules in
order to regenerate NAD+
1. ethanol fermentation occurs in yeast
-CO2, ethanol, and NAD+ are produced
2. lactic acid fermentation
-occurs in animal cells (especially
muscles)
-electrons are transferred from NADH to
pyruvate to produce lactic acid 39
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 Catabolism of Protein & Fat
• Organic molecules other than glucose can be used
for energy

• Catabolism of proteins:
– amino acids undergo deamination to remove the
amino group
– remainder of the amino acid is converted to a
molecule that enters glycolysis or the Krebs cycle

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 Catabolism of Protein & Fat
• Catabolism of fats:
– fats are broken down to fatty acids and
glycerol
– fatty acids are converted to acetyl groups by
β-oxidation and enter Krebs as well as NADH
and FADH2
• The respiration of a 6-carbon fatty acid
yields 20% more energy than glucose.

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 Evolution of Metabolism
• Evolved over time (don’t know the exact
stages)
• A hypothetical timeline for the evolution of
metabolism:
– 1. ability to store chemical energy in ATP
– 2. evolution of glycolysis
– 3. anaerobic photosynthesis (using H2S)
– 4. use of H2O in photosynthesis (not H2S)
– 5. evolution of nitrogen fixation
– 6. aerobic respiration evolved most recently
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