Created: July 31, 2021
Modified: July 31, 2021
Modified: July 31, 2021
citric acid cycle
This page is from my personal notes, and has not been specifically reviewed for public consumption. It might be incomplete, wrong, outdated, or stupid. Caveat lector.- Also known as the Krebs cycle.
- Is the final common pathway for oxidation ('burning') of fuel molecules: carbs, fats, proteins. The fuel molecules enter the cycle as Acetyl-CoA. Presumably some upstream reactions have converted them into this form?
- Outline of the cycle:
- The Acetyl-CoA (in which the acetyl group is a two-carbon chain) merges with oxaloacetic acid (a four-carbon chain) to form citric acid (a six-carbon chain). Note that citric acid is usually really in the form of 'citrate' ()
- Then, two of the carbons from the chain are oxidized and cleaved off to form two CO2 molecules, returning the citric acid to oxaloacetic acid, ready to consume another two Acetyl-CoA.
- Along with way, three NAD+ are reduced to NADH, a FAD to FADH2, and an ATP is generated from an ADP.
- This all happens inside of mitochondria; in particular, inside the inner membrane.