2020_SS1_Bis2A_Facciotti_Reading_13
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Learning Goals Associated with 2020_SS1_Bis2A_Facciotti_Reading_13
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ATP
An important chemical compound is adenosine triphospate (ATP). The main cellular role of ATP is as a “short-term” energy transfer device for the cell. The hydrolysis reactions that liberate one or more of ATP's phosphates are exergonic and many, many cellular proteins have evolved to interact with ATP in ways that help facilitate the transfer of energy from hydrolysis to myriad other cellular functions. In this way, ATP is often called the “energy currency” of the cell: it has reasonably fixed values of energy to transfer to or from itself and can exchange that energy between many potential donors and acceptors. We will see many examples of ATP "at work" in the cell, so be looking for them. As you see them, try to think of them as functional examples of Nature's uses for ATP that
ATP structure and function
Figure 1. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) has three phosphate groups that can
The phosphorylation (or condensation of phosphate groups onto AMP) is an endergonic process.
Since Gibbs free energy is a state function, it doesn't matter how the reaction happens; you just consider the beginning and ending states. As an example, let's examine the hydrolysis of ATP. The reactants ATP and water are characterized by their atomic makeup and the kinds of bonds between the constituent atoms. We can associate some free energy with each of the bonds and their possible configurations—likewise for the products. If we examine the reaction from the standpoint of the products and reactants and ask "how can we recombine atoms and bonds in the reactants to get the products?," we find that a phosphoanhydride bond between an oxygen and a phosphorus must be broken in the ATP, a bond between an oxygen and hydrogen must be broken in the water, a bond must be made between the OH (that came from the splitting of water) and the phosphorus (from the freed PO3-2), and a bond must be formed between the H (derived from the splitting of water) and the terminal oxygen on the phosphorylated nucleotide. It is the sum of energies associated with all of those bond rearrangements (including those directly associated with water) that makes this reaction exergonic. We could make a similar analysis with the reverse reaction.
Is there something special about the specific bonds involved in these molecules? Much is made in various texts about the types of bonds between the phosphates of ATP. Certainly, the properties of the bonds in ATP help define the molecule's free energy and reactivity. However, while it is appropriate to apply concepts like charge density and availability of resonance structures to this discussion, trotting these terms out as an "explanation" without a thorough understanding of how these factors influence the free energy of the reactants is a special kind of hand-waving that we shouldn't engage in. Most BIS2A students have not had any college chemistry and those who have are not likely to have discussed those terms in any meaningful way. So, explaining the process using the ideas above only gives a false sense of understanding, assigns some mystical quality to ATP and its "special" bonds that don't exist, and distracts from the real point: the hydrolysis reaction is exergonic because of the properties of ATP and ALSO because of the chemical properties of water and those of the reaction products. For this class, it is sufficient to know that dedicated physical chemists are still studying the process of ATP hydrolysis in solution and in the context of proteins and that they are still trying to account for the key enthalpic and entropic components of the component free energies. We'll just need to accept a certain degree of mechanistic chemical ignorance and be content with a description of gross thermodynamic properties. The latter is perfectly sufficient to have deep discussions about the relevant biology.
"High-Energy" bonds
What about the term "high-energy bonds" that we so often hear associated with ATP? If there is nothing "special" about the bonds in ATP, why do we always hear the term "high-energy bonds" associated with the molecule? The answer is deceptively simple. In biology the term "high-energy bond" is used to describe an exergonic reaction involving the hydrolysis of the bond in question that results in a "large," negative change in free energy. Remember that this change in free energy has not only to do with the bond in question but rather the sum of all bond rearrangements in the reaction. What constitutes a large change? It is a rather arbitrary assignment usually associated with an amount of energy associated with the types of anabolic reactions we typically observe in biology. If there is something special about the bonds in ATP, it is not uniquely tied to the free energy of hydrolysis, as there are plenty of other bonds whose hydrolysis results in greater negative differences in free energy.
Figure 2. The free energy of hydrolysis of different types of bonds can be compared to that of the hydrolysis of ATP. Source: http://bio.libretexts.org/Core/Biochemistry/Oxidation_and_Phosphorylation/ATP_and_Oxidative_Phosphorylation/Properties_of_ATP
Table 1. Table of common cellular phosphorylated molecules and their respective free energies of hydrolysis.
External link discussing the energetics of coupling ATP hydrolysis to other reactions
Possible NB Discussion Point
You have just now read about two important molecules: NADH/NAD+ and ATP. In what biological contexts/process do you expect to see NADH/NAD+? What about ATP? Can you state what you know so far about the relationship between NADH/NAD+ and ATP? Take a moment to identify any gaps in comprehension you might have -- what questions are you left with after reading the text? Help your peers out with their questions/discussions to reinforce your own knowledge!
The cycling of ATP pools
Estimates for the number of ATP molecules in a typical human cell range from ~3x107 (~5x10-17 moles ATP/cell) in a white blood cell to 5x109 (~9x10-15 moles ATP/cell) in an active cancer cell. While these numbers might seem large, and already amazing, consider that it is estimated that this pool of ATP turns over (becomes ADP and then back to ATP) 1.5 x per minute. Extending this analysis yields the estimate that this daily turnover amounts to roughly the equivalent of one body weight of ATP getting turned over per day. That is, if no turnover/recycling of ATP happened, it would take one body weight worth of ATP for the human body to function, hence our previous characterization of ATP as a "short-term" energy transfer device for the cell.
While the pool of ATP/ADP may be recycled, some of the energy that is transferred in the many conversions between ATP, ADP, and other biomolecules is also transferred to the environment. In order to maintain cellular energy pools, energy must transfer in from the environment as well. Where does this energy come from? The answer depends a lot on where energy is available and what mechanisms Nature has evolved to transfer energy from the environment to molecular carriers like ATP. In nearly all cases, however, the mechanism of transfer has evolved to include some form of redox chemistry.
In this and the sections that follow we are concerned with learning some critical examples of energy transfer from the environment, key types of chemistry and biological reactions involved in this process, and key biological reactions and cellular components associated with energy flow between different parts of the living system. We focus first on reactions involved in the (re)generation of ATP in the cell (not those involved in the creation of the nucleotide per se but rather those associated with the transfer of phosphates onto AMP and ADP).
Video link
For another perspective - including places you'll see ATP in Bis2a, take a look at this video (10 minutes) by clicking here.
How do cells generate ATP?
A variety of mechanisms have emerged over the 3.25 billion years of evolution to create ATP from ADP and AMP. The majority of these mechanisms are modifications on two themes: direct synthesis of ATP or indirect synthesis of ATP with two basic mechanisms known respectively as substrate level phosphorylation (SLP) and oxidative phosphorylation. Both mechanisms rely on biochemical reactions that transfer energy from some energy source to ADP or AMP to synthesize ATP. These topics are substantive, so they will be discussed in detail in the next few modules.
Glycolysis: An overview
Organisms, whether unicellular or multicellular, need to find ways of getting at least two key things from their environment: (1) matter or raw materials for maintaining a cell and building new cells and (2) energy to help with the work of staying alive and reproducing. Energy and the raw materials may come from different places. For instance, organisms that primarily harvest energy from sunlight will get raw materials for building biomolecules from sources like CO2.
Glycolysis is the first metabolic pathway discussed in BIS2A;
The energy story and design challenge of glycolysis
Our investigation of glycolysis is a good opportunity to examine a biological process using both the energy story and the design challenge rubrics and perspectives.
The design challenge rubric will try to get you to think actively, and broadly and specifically, about why we are studying this pathway—what is so important about it? What "problems" does the evolution of a glycolytic pathway allow life to solve or overcome? We will also want to think about alternate ways to solve the same problems and why they may or may not have evolved. Later, we will examine a hypothesis for how this pathway—and other linked pathways—may have evolved, and thinking about alternative strategies for satisfying various constraints will come in handy then.
We ask you to think about glycolysis through the lens of an energy story in which you examine the 10-step process as a set of matter and energy inputs and outputs, a process with a beginning and an end. By taking this
So what is
Enzyme | Step | ΔG/ |
ΔG°'/ |
---|---|---|---|
Hexokinase | 1 | -16.7 | |
Phosphoglucose isomerase | 2 | -2.9 | 1.67 |
Phosphofructokinase | 3 | -14.2 | |
Fructose- |
4 | -0.23 | 23.9 |
Triose phosphate isomerase | 5 | 2. |
7.56 |
Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase | 6 | -1.29 | 6.30 |
Phosphoglycerate kinase | 7 | 0.09 | -18.9 |
Phosphoglycerate mutase | 8 | 0.83 | 4.4 |
Enolase | 9 | 1.1 | 1.8 |
Pyruvate kinase | 10 | -23.0 | -31.7 |
Overall, the glycolytic pathway comprises 10 enzyme-catalyzed steps. The primary input into this pathway is a single molecule of glucose, though we discover that other molecules may enter this pathway at various steps. We will focus our attention on (1) consequences of the overall process, (2) several key reactions that highlight important types of biochemistry and biochemical principles we will want to carry forward to other contexts, and (3) alternative fates of the intermediates and products of this pathway.
Note for reference that glycolysis is an anaerobic process. There is no requirement for molecular oxygen in glycolysis - oxygen gas is not a reactant in any of the chemical reactions in glycolysis. Glycolysis occurs in the cytosol or cytoplasm of cells. For a short (three-minute) overview YouTube video of glycolysis, click here.
First half of glycolysis: energy investment phase
We typically refer the first few steps of glycolysis as an "energy investment phase" of the pathway. This, however, doesn't make much intuitive sense (in the framework of a design challenge; it's not clear what
Step 1 of glycolysis:
The first step in glycolysis, shown below in Figure 2, is glucose being
Figure 2. The first half of glycolysis
The paragraph above states that the enzyme hexokinase has "broad specificity." This means that it can
The conversion of glucose to the negatively charged glucose 6-phosphate significantly reduces the likelihood that the phosphorylated glucose leaves the cell by diffusion across the hydrophobic interior of the plasma membrane. It also "marks" the glucose in a way that tags it for several
Figure 3. Note that this figure shows that glucose 6-phosphate can, depending on cellular conditions,
As Figure 3 shows, glycolysis is but one fate for glucose 6-phosphate (G6P). Depending on cellular conditions, G6P may
Step 2 of glycolysis:
In the second step of glycolysis, an isomerase
Step 3 of glycolysis:
The third step of glycolysis is the phosphorylation of fructose 6-phosphate,
Step 4 of glycolysis:
In the fourth step in glycolysis, an enzyme, fructose-
Second half: energy payoff phase
If viewed in the absence of other metabolic pathways, glycolysis has so far cost the cell two ATP molecules and produced two small, three-carbon sugar molecules: dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DAP) and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (G3P). When viewed in a broader context, this investment of energy to produce a variety of molecules that can
Both DAP and G3P can proceed through the second half of glycolysis. We now examine these reactions.
Figure 4. The second half of glycolysis
Step 5 of glycolysis:
In the fifth step of glycolysis, an isomerase transforms the dihydroxyacetone phosphate into its isomer, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. The six-carbon glucose has therefore now
Step 6 of glycolysis:
The sixth step is key and one from which we can now leverage our understanding of the several chemical reactions that we've studied so far. If
It is important to note that this reaction depends upon the availability of the oxidized form of the electron carrier, NAD+. If we consider that there is a limiting pool of NAD+, we can then conclude that the reduced form of the carrier (NADH) must continuously oxidize back into NAD+ to keep this step going. If NAD+ is not available, the second half of glycolysis slows down or stops.
Possible NB Discussion Point
Can you write an energy story for Step 6 of glycolysis (the reaction
Step 7 of glycolysis:
In the seventh step of glycolysis, catalyzed by phosphoglycerate kinase (an enzyme named for the reverse reaction), 1,3-
Step 8 of glycolysis:
In the eighth step, the remaining phosphate group in 3-phosphoglycerate moves from the third carbon to the second carbon, producing 2-phosphoglycerate (an isomer of 3-phosphoglycerate). The enzyme
Step 9 of glycolysis:
Enolase
Step 10 of glycolysis:
The last step in glycolysis
Outcomes of glycolysis
Here are a few things to consider:
One of the clear outcomes of glycolysis is the biosynthesis of compounds that can enter
If glycolysis runs long enough, the constant oxidation of glucose with NAD+ can leave the cell with a problem: how to regenerate NAD+ from the two molecules of NADH produced. If the cell does not regenerate NAD+, nearly all the cell's NAD+ will transform into NADH. So how do cells regenerate NAD+?
Pyruvate
Possible NB Discussion Point
To some, that glycolysis is such a complex, multi-step pathway may seem counter-intuitive: “Why wouldn’t evolution lead to a *simpler* way to extract energy from food since energy is an important requirement for life?” Explain the necessity/advantage of having glucose get broken down in many steps.
Substrate-level phosphorylation (SLP)
The simplest route to synthesize ATP is substrate-level phosphorylation. ATP molecules
In this reaction, the reactants are a phosphorylated carbon compound called G3P (from step 6 of glycolysis) and an ADP molecule, and the products are 1,3-BPG and ATP. The transfer of the phosphate from G3P to ADP to form ATP in the active site of the enzyme is substrate-level phosphorylation. This occurs twice in glycolysis and once in the TCA cycle (for a subsequent reading).