Electron Transport Chain, Chemiosmosis, Oxidative Phosphorylation

What are the high energy electrons from glucose catabolism used for?

The high energy electrons from glucose catabolism are carried by NADH and FADH² and are used to produce ATP using the electron transport chain

What does the electron transport chain consist of?

The electron transport chain consists of a series of proteins complexes linked together in the inner membrane of the mitochondria

Why do electrons move from one protein to the next in the electron transport chain and how do they move along the chain?

Because each protein complex has a greater attraction for electrons than the previous one, causing electrons to move along the chain through oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions

What is the first step of the electron transport chain?

NADH gives a hydrogen to FMN, which occurs in the first protein complex whereas FADH² gives a hydrogen to a protein complex further down the chain

What is the second step of the electron transport chain?

Oxidation and reduction happens where NADH and FADH² lose electrons (oxidized) where the carriers that pass the electrons gain electrons (reduced)

What are most of the protein complexes in the ETC called?

Cytochromes

What is chemiosmosis and what is an example of this?

Chemiosmosis is the movement of hydrogen ions across a semipermeable membrane down their electrochemical gradient.

An example of this would be the production of ATP by the movement of hydrogen ions across a membrane during cellular respiration

What is oxidative phosphorylation?

Oxidative phosphorylation is the process that produces ATP using energy from electrons that are carried by NADH and FADH²

What is the first part of oxidative phosphorylation?

Electron Transport Chain

Produces an electromagnetic gradient by pumping hydrogen ions into intermembrane space

What is the second part of oxidative phosphorylation?

Chemiosmosis

Uses the energy stored in the hydrogen ion gradient across the membrane to produce ATP

What is the difference between NADH and FADH²

NADH yields 2.5 ATP

FADH² yields 1.5 ATP

Why is there not a complete agreement of the number of ATP produced?

Theoretically, there is 32 ATP that is produced

Although in some cells, the transport of NADH from the cytosol to the mitochondrial matrix leads to the loss of 2 ATP

Why is the role of oxygen in the ETC?

In ETC, oxygen has the highest affinity for the electrons

Why is aerobic respiration more efficient than an anaerobic respiration ?

Aerobic respiration uses oxygen and produces about 30-32 ATP per glucose

Anaerobic respiration does not use oxygen and only uses glycolysis, producing about 2 ATP per glucose

Electron Transport Diagram