BIOLOGY 201/Winter 2018 Dr.

Ian Ferguson

Lecture 4 (week 2)

Eukaryotic Cells: Plant

 Cytosol
 Plasma membrane
 Ribosomes
 Nucleus: Chromatin, centered one nucleolus or more nucleoli, surrounded by
nuclear envelope (eukaryotic nucleus)
 Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum
 Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum
 Golgi apparatus
 Vesicles
 Mitochondria
 Cytoskeleton

Differences between animal and plant cells:

 Plant cells have the microtubule organizing centre on nuclear envelope, but
no centrosome or centrioles
 Cell wall (rigid, gives cell shape and protect it from bursting; made of
cellulose and similar to that of bacteria, but with a different composition)
 One, central vacuole (big structure, for storage and turgor – stiffness caused
by water pressure)
 Many plant cells have chloroplast: one of a few structures responsible for
photosynthesis
o Similar to mitochondria: outer and inner membrane, inside the inner
membrane there is a fluid called stroma; similar in many ways to
cytosol, and thylakoid, that provide a membrane for photosynthesis
(similar to those of bacteria cells, but these are just in the chloroplast,
not through the cell), ribosomes and a loop of DNA
 Plants are multicellular; they are attached to one another through
plasmodesmata (plasmodesma); which are channels that connect one cell
through to the next, facilitating the passage of cytosol, surrounded by the
plasma membrane.
Bacterial Cell:

 No true nucleus
 Cell wall of different composition than in the plants
 No endoplasmic reticulum
 No Golgi apparatus
 No mitochondria
 No chloroplasts
 No vesicles or vacuoles
 No centrosome
 Typically we think of them without a cytoskeleton but recently its been
discovered they have some structure similar to it

Animal Cell:

 No cell wall
 No plasmodesmata
 No chloroplasts
 No central vacuole

Plant Cell:

 No centrosome
 No lysosomes
 Cell wall composed of cellulose

Fungal Cell:

 Defined nucleus (chromatin, nucleolus, nuclear envelope, organelles)

 Cell wall made of chitin
 Pores between cells (big enough so organelles can travel between cells)
 Usually there’s no division between cells, its like one big super cell
 No plasmodesmata
 No centrosome
 No chloroplasts
 Cellular level speaking, they’re closer to animals than to plants of bacteria
Metabolism:

 All chemical reactions taking place in an organism

 1) Metabolic Pathway:
o Particular sequence of connected reactions; largely controlled by
enzymes (chain of reactions connected together; glucose goes through
a reaction that becomes glucole-6-phosphate that goes through a
reaction….); they don’t happen in isolation, they happen together and
simultaneously
 Enzyme: proteins that facilitate specific chemical reactions; shepards
metabolism pathways

 2) ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate): a high energy molecule used to provide

energy in cells (by dividing into something else, ADP)

 3) ADP (Adenosine DiPhosphate): the lower energy form of ATP

 4) NADH: (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide), FADH2 (Falvin Adenine

Dinucleotide), NADPH (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate) are
high-energy molecules carrying high energy electrons. (don’t need to
remember all these fancy names)

 5) NAD+, FAD+ and NADP+ are the low energy form of these molecules
without the high energy electrons, having picked up also one hydrogen
 ATP provides energy by losing a phosphate; leaving ADP + 1Phosphate. Going
from a high energy molecule to a low energy molecule takes a lot of energy;
and it takes a lot of energy to reform ATP and ADP+P

Cellular Respiration:

 C6H12O66CO2+6H2O+energy (in ATP and heat

o The goal is to produce ATP
o It starts with glucose
 Glucoseglycolysispyruvate/NADH/some ATPcitric acid
cycleCO2/NADH+/FADH2/some ATPoxidation phosphorylationway
more ATP
  Glucose goes through glycolysis (energy released to transform glucose
makes up phosphate, generating some ATP and NADH), that becomes
pyruvate (less chemical energy), which still has some energy
 Pyruvate then goes through another metabolic pathway called citric acid
cycle (also releasing energy and using it to make ATP and
NADH/FADH2), getting CO2
 Then NADH, NADH+ and FADH2 go through a pathway called oxidation
phosphorylation, and these electron carriers power it to generate more ATP
 In prokaryotes, glycolysis and citric acid cycle take place in the cytosol.
Oxidation phosphorylation happens in the plasma membrane
 In eukaryotes, glycolysis also happens in the cytosol, but the rest of the
cellular respiration happens in the mitochondrion, which is why it is called
the powerhouse of the cell. More specifically, citric acid cycle in the matrix of
the mitochondria and the oxidation, because it requires a membrane
(phosphate) in the inner membrane of the mitochondria

Glycolysis:

 A metabolic pathway that breaks down glucose into two molecules of

pyruvate
 Energy is released to change ADP and ATP and NAD+ to NADH
 Probably one of the first energy-releasing metabolic pathway to evolve
 Starting with glucose (six carbons) producing two molecules; G3P (three
carbons each)
 This sequence of reactions needs energy which happens converting two ATP
into two ADP molecules
 Each of these G3P molecules will go through reactions without losing any
carbons, turning finally into two pyruvate molecule
 The turning into pyruvate releases energy, causing two NAD+ ions to pick up
a pair of hydrogen ions and turn into two NADH; and four ADP pick up one
phosphate and become four ATP
 The net profit from one glycolysis for the cell is 2 NADH and 2 ATP

Citric Acid Cycle (or Kerbs Cycle):

 A cyclical metabolic pathway that breaks down pyruvate into 3 CO2

 Energy released is used to change ADP to ATP, NAD+ to NADH and FAD+ to
FADH2
  Pyruvate is changed through three reactions before entering this cycle, but
they are not relevant
 Prokaryotes: in the cytosol
 Eukaryotes: matrix of mitochondria
 Pyruvate comes in with 3 carbon atoms and lots of energy, and releases energy
losing a carbon and becoming CO2; this energy also powers NAD+ so it picks
up one hydrogen and becomes NADH
 Whatever is left joins with 4 carbon molecules to form a 6 carbon molecule;
and so the same reaction becoming CO2 and NAD+ into NADH happens
releasing energy, having 5 carbons left
 Such chain of event happens again, leaving the molecule with 4 molecules
 Lost energy reacts by turning ADP into ATP, also for turning FAD+ into FADH2
by picking up two hydrogen atoms but not losing carbon
 The last step, still with 4 carbons, also releases energy to create NADH from
NAD+; what is left does not have a lot of energy
 The next profit from citric acid cycle for the cell is 4 NADH, 1 FADH2 and 1ATP
from 1 pyruvate (and 3 CO2 molecules, that is released when we breathe)
 Part of cellular respiration; for each glucose being processed there are 2 citric
acid cycles happening with 2 pyruvate molecules

Oxidative Phosphorylation:

 A chain of molecules uses energy from NADH and FADH2 to generate a H+

gradient (situation where you have a high concentration of something and low
concentration somewhere else)
 The H+ gradient is used to change ADP to ATP (H+ refers energy to make the
transformation from ADP into ATP)
 Electron Transport Chain:
o In a membrane; the plasma membrane in a prokaryotic cell, the inner
mitochondrial membrane in eukaryotic ones
o NADH loses a pair of electrons, becoming NADH+ while H+ starts being
pumped through the said membrane by a carrier protein
o These electrons; NADH originated H+ are being pumped across the
membrane through to the fluid between membranes or cytoplasm
(active transport because ions cannot go through the phospholipid
bilayer)
o In the next step, more H+ are pumped by carrier proteins through the
membrane; and in the next step as well, the energy being released used
to perform the reaction
 o Now low energy electrons, the H+ ions join a molecule of O2, forming
H2O molecules (two hydrogen ions and one negatively charged oxygen
ion) so to get rid of these electrons and make room for more, to
continue the reaction and make more ATP in the end.
o The NAD+ produced is used in glycolysis
o The oxygen that we breathe in winds up here, not in carbon dioxide as
it is commonly believed
o FADH2 is also used in this process, losing 3 electrons of H and becoming
FAD+, although FADH2 carries electrons with less energy. When they
become FAD+ and NAD+ get back to beginning to glycolysis to carry
electrons and go through the processes
o On average, for 1 NADH we get 3 ATP, in comparison to FADH2, where
we get 2 ATP per molecule
 Chemiosmotic ATP Synthesis:
o ATP Synthase: enzyme and channel protein for hydrogen ions
o The flow of energy through these proteins, supplied by their carrying
of the hydrogen ions that diffuse across, release energy and force one
phosphorus into ADP, turning into ATP
o The phospholipid bilayer presents on one side, the inner side, low
concentration and high on the outside, creating an energy
concentration gradient through the H+ ions, so that they are channelled
through the channel proteins in diffusion to balance such environments
and in so doing forcing H+ to form the ATP from ADP
o As H+ moves, the pH scale also does
 Glycolysis: produces 2 ATP +
o (2 NADH 6 ATP)
 Citric acid cycle: produces 2 ATP+
o (8 NADH 24 ATP; 2 FADH4 ATP)
 up to 38 ATP can be generated per glucose but that doesn’t happen, its usually
a bit less; which means usually a total of 34 ADP that join one phosphorus and
become 34 ATP in the oxidative phosphorylation (2 ATP are used to run the
first step though)
 The ATP revenue from glycolysis and citric acid cycle is not really relevant;
they only produce pyruvate and the carriers to go through oxidative
phosphorylation that make the big amount of ATP from ADP through the
carriers in the steps cited above