Cellular respiration

Question

How many Nadh/fadh2/net atp produced during pyruvate oxidation per glucose molecule?

Answer 1

First of all, to keep it clear, recall that one glucose molecule produces 2 pyruvate molecules at the end of glycolysis... remember to keep that in mind. Continuing from there, oxidation of (2) pyruvate via Pyruvate Dehydrogenase complex, yields 2 NADH (remember, these 2 NADH will then produce ATP at a later stage during the ETC)

From here, the TCA cycle will then continue. And importantly, KEEP IN MIND that there are (2) ACoA molecules. 1 ATP (GTP) is produced at a step of the TCA cycle; thus giving us 2 ATP with 2 turns of the cycle. Similarly, NADH is produced at 3 steps, giving a total of 6 NADH. And FADH2 is produced at 1 step, totaling 2 FADH2.

Now, in order to calculate the net ATP (at the end of the ETC), we have to remember the following:

1 NADH = ~2.5 ATP

1 FADH2 = ~1.5 ATP

1 GTP = 1 ATP

Thus, the TOTAL ATP produced from ONE glucose molecule = ~ 30 ATP