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The underlying force driving these reactions is the Gibbs free energy of the reactants relative to the products. If donor and acceptor (the reactants) are of higher free energy than the reaction products, the electron transfer may occur spontaneously. The Gibbs free energy is the energy available ("free") to do work.
The reaction for the aerobic respiration is essentially the reverse of photosynthesis, except that now there is a large release of chemical energy which is stored in ATP molecules (up to 38 ATP molecules are formed from one molecule of glucose and 6 O 2 molecules). The simplified version of this reaction is: C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2 → 6 CO 2 + 6 H
In general outline, photosynthesis is the opposite of cellular respiration: while photosynthesis is a process of reduction of carbon dioxide to carbohydrates, cellular respiration is the oxidation of carbohydrates or other nutrients to carbon dioxide. Nutrients used in cellular respiration include carbohydrates, amino acids and fatty acids.
The water-splitting reaction occurs on the lumenal side of the thylakoid membrane and is driven by the light energy captured by the photosystems. This oxidation of water conveniently produces the waste product O 2 that is vital for cellular respiration. The molecular oxygen formed by the reaction is released into the atmosphere.
Hydrogen peroxide is a dangerously strong oxidant which must be immediately split into water and oxygen by the enzyme catalase. The conversion of 2× 2Carbon glycine to 1× C 3 serine in the mitochondria by the enzyme glycine-decarboxylase is a key step, which releases CO 2, NH 3, and reduces NAD to NADH. Thus, one CO
An important example is the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by the movement of hydrogen ions (H +) across a membrane during cellular respiration or photosynthesis. An ion gradient has potential energy and can be used to power chemical reactions when the ions pass through a channel (red).
Typically, the complete breakdown of one molecule of glucose by aerobic respiration (i.e. involving glycolysis, the citric-acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation, the last providing the most energy) is usually about 30–32 molecules of ATP. [16] Oxidation of one gram of carbohydrate yields approximately 4 kcal of energy. [3]
The antenna complex contains hundreds of chlorophyll molecules which funnel the excitation energy to the center of the photosystem. At the reaction center, the energy will be trapped and transferred to produce a high energy molecule. [2] The main function of PSII is to efficiently split water into oxygen molecules and protons.