Cell Respiration and Metabolism 129- Suppose you eat a chicken sandwich. Trace the fate of the
chicken protein and the bread starch from your intestine to
your liver and muscles. Using this information, evaluate the
statement “You are what you eat.”
Test Your Quantitative Ability
Answer the following questions regarding a twenty-carbon-long
fatty acid (refer to figure 5.14 ).- How many acetyl CoA molecules can be produced during
the complete b -oxidation of this fatty acid? - How many ATP will be broken down in the complete
b -oxidation of this fatty acid? - How many ATP will be produced by direct (substrate-
level) phosphorylation when this fatty acid is completely
metabolized? - How many NADH and FADH 2 will be produced when this
fatty acid is completely metabolized? - How many ATP will be made by oxidative phosphorylation
when this fatty acid is completely metabolized for energy?
Test Your Analytical Ability
- A friend, wanting to lose weight, eliminates all fat from her
diet. How would this help her to lose weight? Could she
possibly gain weight on this diet? How? Discuss the health
consequences of such a diet. - Suppose a drug is developed that promotes the channeling
of H^1 out of the intermembrane space into the matrix of the
mitochondria of adipose cells. How could this drug affect the
production of ATP, body temperature, and body weight? - For many years, the total number of molecules of ATP
produced for each molecule of glucose in aerobic respiration
was given as 38. Later, it was estimated to be closer to 36,
and now it is believed to be closer to 30. What factors must
be considered in estimating the yield of ATP molecules? Why
are the recent numbers considered to be approximate values? - People who are starving have very thin arms and legs.
Because they’re not eating, no glucose is coming in from
the gastrointestinal tract, yet the brain must still be getting
glucose from the blood to keep them alive. Explain the
relationship between these observations, and the particular
metabolic pathways involved.
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