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The physicality of the proton pumps (I can never remember which ATPase it is) was new for me. My intro chemistry and biology classes in college really didn't ge
by krinchan 4y ago
The physicality of the proton pumps (I can never remember which ATPase it is) was new for me. My intro chemistry and biology classes in college really didn't get too far past "proton goes through tube and an ATP appears!"
- rawgabbit 4y agoIt is called ATP Synthase. My go to source is libretext. Glucose is transformed to pyruvate then Acetyl CoA. The Krebs or Citric Acid cycle creates electron carrier molecules. These donate electrons and power four proteins which slowly pump protons into the mitochondria space between its inner and outer membrane. This creates a proton gradient or imbalance as the protons want to diffuse back into the mitochondria. This flow or river of protons power the ATPsynthase which is like a wind turbine and creates ATP for the cell to use. What is interesting is that plants create glucose in their leaves. But plant cells also consume glucose at night. Or in parts of the plant that cannot create its own energy.
- rawgabbit 4y agoHere is a video animation explaining the electron transport chain. https://youtu.be/LQmTKxI4Wn4 https://youtu.be/LQmTKxI4Wn4
- krinchan 4y agoThanks. Keeping this in a pinned tab till I have a chance to watch it all (I scrubbed through it just now). I love getting to see how things work visually like this.
- krinchan 4y agoOh I went through the wringer with memorizing the Krebs cycle. It's just every time you got to ATP Synthase it was literally just a tube, a few arrows, some comicbook-esque POW shapes, and "ADP" and "ATP" on both ends of the POW. Lmao. So "oh it's a water wheel that the proton pushes that then pushes the phosphate onto the ADP" is like, "Oh. There's...a whole physical machine and not just magic 'energy transfer'". I just thought it was really cool, though obvious in retrospect. (I am not a clever man.)