Tag: living organisms and energy production

Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP has stored energy in its bond with the third phosphate group. However when required, ATP loses its third phosphate group to release energy and gets converted back to ADP. The energy released is in the form of chemical energy that the cells can use.

Most of the plants that are adapted to dry tropical regions have the $C _{4}$ pathway. e.g. Sugarcane, Maize, Sorghum,etc. These plants are known as $C _{4}$ plants.For the formation of sugars, $C _{4}$ plants undergo $C _{4}$ cycle as well as $C _{3}$ cycle or Calvin cycle. In these plants double fixation of carbon dioxide occurs.

On complete combustion of glucose (1 mole) to CO$ _{2}$ & H$ _{2}$O, approx. 686 kcal of energy is released. When 1 g of glucose respires aerobically by ETS, Glycolysis and  Krebs cycle, around 38 ATP molecules are generated. The terminal group of a mole of ATP has around 10 kcal. Thus, 38 ATP molecules represent a yield of 380 kcal of energy.  

For every $CO _{2}$ molecule entering the Calvin cycle, $3$ molecules of $ATP$ and $2$ molecules of NADPH are required. To make one molecule of glucose, $6$ turns of the cycles are required 

One molecule of the glucose that enters in the glycolysis produces 2 molecules pyruvate and 2 molecules of NADH$ _{2}$ and 2 ATP.  2 molecules of pyruvate will form 2 molecules of Acetyl Co-A and this will release 2 molecules of CO$ _{2}$ and 2 NADH$ _{2}$. These 2 Acetyl Co-A will enter into Kreb's cycle and will release 4CO$ _{2}$, 6NADH$ _{2}$, 2FADH$ _{2}$ and 2ATP.

The energy in an organism is stored in the form of ATP molecule called Adenosine Triphosphate. It is also considered as the energy currency of the cell and break down of one molecule of glucose in the process of respiration. It occurs mainly in mitochondria gives 38 ATP molecules. Single ATP provides around 30.5 KJ of energy.

Sucrose is made up of glucose and fructose. From one molecule of glucose, 38 ATP molecules can be produced during cellular respiration. During Kreb cycle, 2 molecules of FAD are reduced to FADH$ _2$. Now 2 FADH$ _2$ produce 2 x 2 = 4 ATP molecules. Fructose is converted to fructose-6-phosphate by hexokinase enzyme. This fructose-6-phosphate then enters the glycolysis and produces same amount of ATP as glucose molecule does. Hence, it will also produce 4 ATP molecules by FADH$ _2$ of Krebs cycle. Hence, total ATP produced will be 8 molecules phosphorylation by FADH$ _2$ of Krebs cycle.

Aerobic respiration is the process of producing cellular energy involving oxygen. Cells break down food in the mitochondria in a long, multistep process that produces roughly 36 ATP. The first step in is glycolysis, the second is the citric acid cycle and the third is the electron transport system.