By using electron transport system and oxidative phosphorylation steps, the cell utilizes energy stored in NADH + H+ and FADH formed during glycolysis and Krebs cycle. The Electron Transport System also called the Electron Transport Chain is a metabolic pathway present in the inner mitochondrial membrane, where electrons available from oxidation of NADH and FADH2… Read More »
The fate of pyruvic acid formed at the end of Glycolysis depends on the need of the cell and also on availability of oxygen. Organisms which grow in absence of oxygen – In anaerobic organisms, fermentation takes place after glycolysis. In presence of oxygen, aerobic respiration takes place where pyruvic acid from glycolysis enter Krebs’s… Read More »
Introduction : Glucose happens to be important and common fuel for many organisms. The process of breaking down of glucose in multistep manner to extract energy present in its C-C bonds (chemical bonds) is called “Cellular Respiration“. Only green plants, Algae and Cyanobacteria have the ability to prepare their own food by the process of… Read More »
The breakdown of glucose to pyruvic acid in a multi step manner is called as Glycolysis. It takes place in cytoplasm of the cell. It is common pathway to both Anaerobic and Aerobic respiration. The Glycolysis pathway is a very ancient pathway present in majority of organisms from every branch of the bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. This… Read More »
Earth came into existence some 4.5 billions year ago and based on the fossil evidence from ancient rocks of Greenland, the life on earth dates to 3.7 billion years ago. The organisms that existed for the first two billions years, after the origin of life, were all anaerobic organisms. These organisms managed to survive and… Read More »
Light and Dark reactions ( Calvin cycle / C3 Cycle) are sequential reactions which occur during Photosynthesis process. In this post we will look into some important differences between these two vital aspects which are essential for synthesis of food in Plants and some other organisms. Difference Light Reaction Dark or Calvin Cycle Place of… Read More »
The term Photosynthesis was first proposed by Prof. Conway MacMillan , when he was working at University of Minnesota in 1893. In the earlier blog posts we discussed about Introduction to Photosynthesis in green Plants and details of Light Reaction. As we have seen in previous posts, Photosynthesis can be divided into two different parts… Read More »
Photosynthesis can be divided into two parts : Light dependent reactions or Light Reactions and Dark Reactions or Calvin Cycle. Light reactions forms the “Photo” part of Photosynthesis and Dark reactions / Calvin Cycle is a separate process which accounts for “synthesis” aspect in Photosynthesis, where sugars are produced. Light reaction involves the following events… Read More »
Photosynthesis is a process where green plants and some other organisms (algae and some bacteria – such as Proteobacteria , Chloroflexi, Chlorobi and cyanobacteria ) uses trapped sunlight to convert carbon di oxide and water to produce chemical energy in the form of carbohydrates (most commonly glucose) and oxygen. In other words, photosynthesis is a process… Read More »
Every living creature on this planet Earth needs to extract energy from the dietary food, a process termed as Catabolism ( breaking down of complex molecules into simpler molecules to yield maximum energy, eg: Glucose gets converted by a process involving Glycolysis, Krebs cycle and electron transport chain – to yield ATP). The opposite cellular… Read More »