Metabolic Functions

9/13/01


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Table of Contents

Metabolic Functions

Metabolism

Organisms can be classified by their kind of metabolism:

Organisms can be classified by their kind of metabolism:

Most cellular reactions are catalyzed by enzymes

The kind of metabolism any organism can carry out depends on the enzymes it has, which in turn are dependent on the organism's genetic makeup.

Since this is characteristic of each kind of organism, we can classify organisms based on their metabolism

Most metabolic processes occur in a series of reactions in which the products of the first reaction become the substrate of the next reaction. These can be linear:

A common linear reaction is Glycolysis, a process in which glucose and other hexose sugars are broken down to pyruvate (pyruvic acid), and energy is recovered in the form of ATP and NADH.

or cyclic:

A common example of cyclic reactions is Krebs’ cycle, also known as the citric acid cycle, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle.

Note that each step is catalyzed by an enzyme

Glycolysis: first part

Glycolysis : first part

Glycolysis: second part

Glycolysis

Fermentation

Respiration

Electron Transport

Sensitivity to Oxygen

Sensitivity to Oxygen

Sensitivity to Oxygen

Author: Charles Jacobs

Email: cjacobs@hfcc.net

Home Page: http://sciweb.hfcc.net/biology/jacobs/main.html