The energy stored in 36 ATP molecules produced by aerobic respiration is 39% of the energy available in 6....

Question

carbon glucose and the other 61% of the glucose bond is totally lost. the resperation of an 18 carbon fatty acid produces 216 ATP. We can expect that

a)) the degradation of a fatty acid is totally unrelated to the citric acid cycle

b))six times as much energy was stored in this molecule but also a similar proportion is lost

c))because the molecules are so large, fats are an inefficient form of energy to be stored

d))this respiration pathway must occur in some cell organelle besides the mitochondrion

Answer 1

actually one can get 38 ATPs from glucose if the malate aspartate shuttle is used for the cytosolic NADH reducing equivalent instead of the glycerol-3 phosphate shuttle . Anyway  the figure for quoted for ATP production from a C18 fatty acid is wayy out of proportion. beta oxidation of a fatty acid of chain length N is 8.5 N -7   doing the math  the yield from combustion of the fatty acid by beta oxidation  and the acetyl CoAs going through the TCA and thence the NADHs and FADH2 formed going to ETS as well as the FADH2 and NADH formed at each cut of the chain  one gets 146 ATP NOT 216  Nonetheless the answer that best fits is b  even though the energy discrepancy is not THAT great