SUMMARY OF CELL PHYSIOLOGY
METABOLISM = anabolism (build up rx that store energy) + catabolism (breakdown rx that release energy)
CELL RESPIRATION = Conversion of glucose energy to ATP energy
 Glycolysis – occurs anywhere in the cell without O2
o Glucose enters into the cell and is cut in ½ releasing enough energy to produce 2ATP
molecules
o The remnants of the broken glucose are called pyruvic acid
 Kreb’s cycle – occurs only in the mitochondrial matrix
o Pyruvic acid enters into the mitochondria for further decomposition
o Through a series of chemical reactions, the energy contained in pyruvic acid is transferred
to 2 ATP molecules
o CO2 is produced
o Electron carriers are also synthesized
 Electron transport chain – occurs only in the mitochondria and requires O2
o Electron carriers from previous reactions are shuttled across the cristae within the
mitochondria and produce another 32 molecules of ATP
o H2O is produced
PROTEIN SYNTHESIS
 Transcription
o Occurs in nucleus where information on chromosomal gene is copied to mRNA molecule via
complementary base pairing
 A—U
 T—A
 C—G
 G—C
o RNA polymerase unwinds DNA and complementarily copies DNA based on nitrogenous base
pairing A-U and C-G
 Translation
o Released mRNA molecule migrates out of the nucleus and binds to a ribosome
o The ribosome reads the base sequence on mRNA and allows tRNA to dock when mRNA
codon complements to tRNA anticodon
o The tRNA molecule then drops off its amino acid as it is bonded to the growing chain of
amino acids
o When a stop codon is read, the protein is released to be packaged by the ER and modified
by the Golgi apparatus before release from the cell
Jennifer Reaves, JSCC Savannah