Review session Midterm 2

BIOL 2085C
1. Which of the following is consistent with a situation in which a cell’s ATP supply decrease
significantly? Select all that apply
A. The rate of chlorine diffusion from the lumen to the cell increases.
B. The rate of Glucose diffusion from the lumen to the intestinal cells increase
C. The rate of potassium diffusion from the intestinal cells to the lumen increase
D. The rate of sodium diffusion from the Lumen to the intestinal cell decreases.
E. The Rate of glucose diffusion from the lumen to the intestinal cells decreases
Explanation: Decrease in ATP synthesis will eventually stop the Na+/K+ pump, which will
decrease the amount of Na+ outside of the epithelial cells of the intestine (in the lumen),
decreasing the rate of diffusion of sodium and glucose by the sodium/glucose cotransporter

2. Imagine that a charged solute is present on both sides of the membrane but at a higher concentration
on the outside, what can you say about the direction of Solute X’s movement?
A. It will move from outside to inside
B. It will move from inside to outside
C. It will be in equilibrium across the membrane.
D. Not enough information to predict its movement.
Explanation: If the solute is charged, you need to know the concentration but also the charge,
as the movement depends on an electrochemical gradient.

3. How many carbons from 13 original glucose molecules enter the Krebs cycle in the absence of
oxygen?
A. 78
B. 52
C. 39
D. 26
E. 0 (Explanation: The Krebs cycle does not occur in the absence of oxygen)

4. Which of the following statements is/are true about the figure below? Select all that apply

A. In the presence of oxygen, pyruvate is

reduced to Acetyl CoA
B. In the presence of oxygen, pyruvate is
oxidized to Acetyl CoA
C. In the absence of oxygen, Pyruvate is
oxidized to Lactate
D. In the absence of oxygen, pyruvate is
reduced to ethanol
E. Lactate can be converted back to pyruvate,
which5 will
5. Justify why each of the statements from Question you require
decidedlactate to be are
were false, oxidized
false.
A is false because if NAD+ is being reduced to NADH, then pyruvate is being oxidized.
C is false because if NADH is being oxidized to NAD+ then pyruvate has to be reduced to lactate

5. Glycolysis is a relatively inefficient pathway for extracting energy from glucose:

A. The yield of 2 moles of ATP per mole of glucose is only about 5% of complete
oxidation through oxidative phosphorylation
 B. the yield of 4 moles of ATP per mole of glucose is only about 5% of complete oxidation
through oxidative phosphorylation
C. the yield of 2 moles of ATP per mole of glucose is only about 15% of complete
oxidation through oxidative phosphorylation
D. the yield of 4 moles of ATP per mole of glucose is only about 15% of complete
oxidation through oxidative phosphorylation

Explanation: the net output of glycolysis is 2 ATPs and the net output of the complete oxidation is
about 34-36 ATPs. Two ATPs is roughly 5% of 34.

7. Glycogen is the body’s storage form of glucose. When glycogen is degraded, glucose 1-Phosphate is
formed. Glucose 1-Phosphate can then be isomerized to glucose 6-Phospate. Starting with glucose 1-P
what is the net yield of glycolysis (and only glycolysis) in terms of ATP and NADH formed?
A. 1 ATP, 1 NADH
B. ATP, 2 NADH
C. 2 ATP, 1 NADH
D. 2 ATP, 2 NADH
E. 3 ATP, 1 NADH
F. 3 ATP, 2 NADH

8. Explain your rationale for selecting your answer for Q8.

Usually 2 ATPs are consumed in glycolysis during the “energy consuming” half, and one of these
steps involves the conversion of glucose to glucose 6-P (step 1 – the other one is consumed in Step
3). If we are starting with glucose 6-P, that means that we have “bypassed” the ATP that is
consumed in step 1 and only require the input of 1 ATP in step 3. Still, 4 ATPs will be released as
usual, so 4-1= 3 ATPs. The number of NADH does not change from the regular glycolysis.

9. What would be the net yield in terms of ATP, NADH and FADH2 by the complete aerobic oxidation
of one glucose 1-Phosphate?
A. 5 ATP, 10 NADH, 2 FADH2
B. 3 ATP, 6 NADH, 1 FADH2
C. 4 ATP, 8 NADH, 2 FADH2
D. 3 ATP, 10 NADH, 1 FADH2
E. 4 ATP, 6 NADH, 1 FADH2
Explanation: From the previous question, we have 3 ATP + 2 NADH. At the end of glycolysis, we
have 2 pyruvates, that each enter the Krebs cycle, producing 4 NADH + 1 FADH2 + 1 GPT (we
count it as ATP). Because there are 2 molecules of pyruvate that means 8 NADH + 2 FADH2+ 2
ATPs. So in total we have 5 ATP (3 from glycolysis, 2 from Krebs) + 10 NADH (2 from glycolysis
+ 8 from Pyruvate decarboxylation + Krebs) + 2 FADH2.

10. How many TOTAL ATPs would be produced by the complete aerobic oxidation of one glucose 1-
Phosphate?
A. 25 ATPs
B. 28 ATPs
C. 30 ATPs
D. 33 ATPs
E. 38 ATPs
11. Indicate in detail how you calculated the number of ATPs in question 11.
Explanation: 10 NADH = 100H+ (10 x 10 H+) and 2 FADH2 = 12 (2x 6H+), so 112 protons total.
Since 4 protons are required to synthesize 1 ATP, then 112/4=28. 28 ATPs + 5 ATPs from
reducing agents + 5 ATPs (from ATP themselves produced) = 33 ATPs.

12. During week 7 of your cell biology labs, you will be using a combination of differential
centrifugation and enzyme kinetics to determine the activity of the enzyme succinate dehydrogenase.
Your instructor forgets to purchase the cauliflower and suggests we can test the activity of this enzyme
using red blood cells. Would this experiment work? FULLY explain your answer.
Answer: NO, it will not work. It is possible some students identify that the goal of this lab was to
extract mitochondria and hopefully they remember that erythrocytes lack mitochondria. But the
KEY is that they want to test succinate dehydrogenase, which is part of the krebs cycle and the
ETC, so no, erythrocytes do not have this enzyme. Note: I want to train them to identify what
things red blood cells do and do not do. There is an exam question where they have to identify
enzyme deficiencies in red blood cells and it is important that they remember that red blood cells
only do glycolysis.

13. You are studying the enzyme kinetics of enzymes in the Krebs cycle. You add a molecule to the
mixture that appears to act as a competitive inhibitor of one of the enzymes. At first, you cannot tell
which enzyme is inhibited, but you can tell that it is bound to the inner mitochondrial membrane. Can
you guess which TCA enzyme you have inhibited and how do you know?
Answer= You probably inhibited succinate dehydrogenase, because this is the only enzyme of the
Krebs cycle that is not located in the mitochondrial matrix, but is in fact embedded in the
mitochondrial membrane as part of complex II in the ETC

14. A hallmark of the Na-K pump is that it is blocked by a class of compounds known as cardiac
glycosides, examples of which are ouabain and digoxin; digoxin is widely used for a variety of
cardiac conditions. These compounds have a high affinity for the extracellular binding site of the
pump and compete for binding with the ion that binds to this conformation. Accordingly, which
one of the following scenarios would enhance the activity of cardiac glycosides? Explain your
answer.
A. A lower than normal concentration of K+ in the extracellular space.
B. A higher than normal concentration of K+ in the extracellular space.
C. A lower than normal concentration of Na+ in the extracellular space.
D. A higher than normal concentration of Na+ in the extracellular space.

Answer = A is the correct answer. The sodium-potassium pump transports Na+ ions from the
cytoplasm into the extracellular space, and K+ ions from the extracellular space into the
cytoplasm. To be able to bind K+ in the extracellular space, where concentration of K+ is low
and Na+ concentration is very high, the pump needs to have a very high affinity for K+ and low
affinity for Na+ . If the concentration of K+ in the extracellular space decreases even more,
cardiac glycosides would be more efficient at competing for binding.

15. In the 1960s, Louis Pasteur noticed that when he added O2 to a culture of yeast growing
anaerobically on glucose, the rate of glucose consumption declined dramatically. Explain the basis of
this result, which is known as the Pasteur effect.
Answer=Energy demand in many yeast cells can be satisfied by highly efficient mitochondrial
energy production (requiring oxygen) or by the much less efficient glycolytic generation of ATP
(anaerobic oxidation). Anaerobic oxidation of glucose produces only 2 ATPs per molecule of
glucose but when oxygen is present, yeasts generate up to 15 times more ATP per molecule of
glucose. Therefore, transition from the anaerobic to the aerobic conditions leads to a suppression of
the rate of glycolysis (less glucose consumed), accompanied by a reduction of ethanol synthesis
and CO2 (fermentation also decreases)