BIOL 301 Chapter 13.4:

• School: Emory University
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL 301
• Professor: Eladio Abreu

Document Summary

These carriers eventually donate electrons to high- affinity acceptors, releasing energy. Electron flow can drive biological work: electromotive force, emf: an electron-driving force proportional to a difference in electron affinity between two chemical species. It can accomplish work in the presence of an energy transducer (equivalent to a motor: the biological circuit of living cells, reduced compound such as glucose provides electrons. In the mitochondrion, electron flow is coupled to the establishment of a transmembrane electrochemical gradient. This gradient, produced by buildup of protons on one side of the membrane, has potential energy and is called the proton-motive force: atp synthase, an enzyme in the inner mitochondrial membrane, uses this force to synthesize atp. Dehydrogenation often occurs in biological oxidations: carbon in living cells can take on a range of oxidation states depending on adjacent atoms. In methane, carbon is more electronegative than its four bound hydrogens and therefore owns all eight bonding electrons.