Chemistry Answers

Glucose is completely oxidized to CO2 and H2O through aerobic glycolysis and the CAC.

a) How many moles of ATP are utilized in the glycolytic pathway?

b) How many moles of ATP are formed in the glycolytic pathway through substrate level phosphorylation (SLP)?

c) How many moles of NADH and thus ATPs in the mitochondria are formed in aerobic glycolysis?

d) How many moles of NADH and thus ATPs are produced in the entry of pyruvate into CAC as acetyl CoA?

e) How many moles of NADH, FADH2 and thus ATPs are produced in one cycle if the CAC?

f) How many  moles of SLP in the form of GTP and thus ATP are produced in one cycle of the CAC?

g) From the foregoing, what is the net ATP produced in the complete oxidation of 1 mole of glucose?

[Assumptions: 2 moles of pyruvate are produced from 1 mole of glucose; 1 mole of pyruvate produces 1 mole of acetyl CoA; 3 turns of the CAC needed to convert 6Cs of citrate to CO2, 1 GTP = 1 ATP].

Most of steps in glycolysis are reversible by the same enzyme. However, there are 3 steps in the pathway that cannot be reversed by the same enzyme.

a) What are the general terms used in describing (i) these steps and (ii) the enzymes catalysing these steps?​​​​​​​

b) Name these enzymes and show the steps in the pathway that they catalyse.​

c) Indicate how these steps in glycolysis are reversed in gluconeogenesis.​

d) Why can glycolysis and gluconeogenesis take place in two different tissues at the same time but not in the same tissue at the same time?​​​​