I had a community band performance yesterday. :3 Benny Goodman, Stevie Wonder, The Carpenters...all that good stuff. Oh, and in biology we're learning about Kreb's cycle and glycolsis. I don't get a lick of any of that. I barely understood the whole ATP/NADPH process...could anyone simplify any of that?
I'm a Biology major, so I know a little bit about this stuff. Basically, the main objective of every reaction leading up to the Electron Transport Chain is to make NADH and FADH2, so that the ETC can convert it to ATP.
Glycolysis = 2 ATP produced, 2 NADH produced, 2 Pyruvate molecules produced.
Pyruvate Oxidation = 2 NADH produced.
Krebs Cycle = 2 ATP produced, 6 NADH produced, 2 FADH2 produced.
ETC = takes the 10 NADH --> converts to 30 units of ATP, converts 2 molecules FADH2 to 4 units of ATP.
Total ATP produced will be between 36-38 units, depending on the efficiency of the ETC.
Here's the whole process, in a nutshell (though I did leave out Fermentation). If you have any questions just shoot me a VM and I'll be glad to help.
The process of Glycolysis has 2 main objectives: To use NAD+ produce NADH that will later be used in the Electron Transport Chain to produce ATP, to produce 2 3-carbon molecules of Pyruvate, and to net a couple of units of ATP for energy usage. If there IS Oxygen present, the Pyruvate will go from the cytoplasm of the cell into the Mitochondria, where it will undergo Pyruvate Oxidation, which produces 2 CO2 molecules and also some NADH, while converting the 3-carbon Pyruvate into a 2-carbon Acetyl Coenzyme A. The Acetyl CoA enters the inner matrix of the Mitochondria and undergoes a series of reactions called the Krebs cycle, which produces a little ATP and several units of NADH and FADH2, and ends up Oxidizing the last 4 carbons (so no carbon molecules from the original 6-carbon glucose are left after this step). After all of this, the NADH and FADH2 go to the Mitochondrial membrane and are used during the Electron Transport Chain to create the bulk of the ATP cells will need.