Energy substrate level phosphorylation

ATP synthase reaction has been calculated as approximately 51.6 kJ. It follows that the total energy captured in ATP per mole of glucose oxidized is 1961 kJ, or approximately 68% of the energy of combustion. Most of the ATP is formed by oxidative phosphorylation resulting from the reoxidation of reduced coenzymes by the respiratory chain. The remainder is formed by substrate-level phosphorylation (Table 17—1). 

By the mid-1950s, therefore, it had become clear that oxidation in the tricarboxylic acid cycle yielded ATP. The steps had also been identified in the electron transport chain where this apparently took place. Most biochemists expected oxidative phosphorylation would occur analogously to substrate level phosphorylation, a view that was tenaciously and acrimoniously defended. Most hypotheses entailed the formation of some high-energy intermediate X Y which, in the presence of ADP and P( would release X and Y and yield ATP. A formulation of the chemical coupling hypothesis was introduced by Slater in 1953,... 

Substrate level phosphorylation involves the transfer of phosphate directly from a high energy compound (shown below as X-P) to ADP. This illustrates the concept of reaction coupling (Section 2.2.5) thus ... 

The scheme (Fig. 15.1) thus explained the production of both sulfate and sulfur in equimolar amounts from thiosulfate oxidation. In showing adenylylsulfate as an intermediate, it also provided a feasible route for the conservation of energy from sulfite oxidation by a substrate-level phosphorylation mechanism, in which ADP sulfurylase and adenylate kinase give rise to ATP ... 

Energy Conservation by Substrate-Level Phosphorylation and Its Coupling to Carbon Dioxide Fixation... 

Pyruvate kinase the last enzyme in aerobic glycolysis, it catalyzes a substrate-level phosphorylation of ADP using the high-energy substrate phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP). Pyruvate kinase is activated by fructose 1,6-bisphosphate from the PFK-1 reaction (feedforward activation). 

Bisphosphoglycerate and phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) are high-energy intermediates used to generate ATP by substrate-level phosphorylation. 

This is another exampie of substrate-level phosphorylation, but differs from the earlier example that involved hydrolysis of a mixed anhydride. Here, we have merely the hydrolysis of an ester, and thus a much lower release of energy. In fact, with 1,3-diphosphoglycerate, we specifically noted the difference in reactivity between the anhydride and ester groups. So how can this reaction lead to ATP synthesis The answer lies in the stability of the hydrolysis product, enolpyruvic acid. Once formed, this enol is rapidly isomerized to its keto tautomer, pyruvic acid, with the equilibrium heavily favouring the keto tautomer (see Section 10.1). The driving force for the substrate-level phosphorylation reaction is actually the position of equilibrium in the subsequent tautomerization. 

The product succinyl-CoA is able to participate in ATP synthesis as an example of substrate-level phosphorylation - we met some other examples in the glycolytic pathway. Essentially, hydrolysis of succinyl-CoA liberates snfficient energy that it can be coupled to the synthesis of ATP from ADP. However, guanosine triphosphate (GTP) is the... 

In the literature, the term substrate level phosphorylation is used inconsistently. Some authors use it to refer to reactions in which anorganic phosphate is raised to a high potential, while others use it for the subsequent reactions, in which ATP or GTP is formed from the energy-rich intermediates. 

This is an example of substrate-level phosphorylation, ie, the creation of a high-energy phosphate bond through a chemical reaction rather than via oxidative phosphorylation (see Chapter 7). 

Energy is also captured through substrate-level phosphorylation in the form of GTP synthesis. 

Succinyl-CoA synthetase (SCS), also known as succinate thiokinase (STK) or succinate CoA ligase ( 6.2.1.4-5), is so far the only known hydrogenosomal enzyme directly involved in energy conservation. The protein catalyzes the reversible, substrate-level phosphorylation of ADP or GDP to the respective triphosphate at the expense of the high-energy thioester bond of succinyl-CoA. Succinate and CoA are released in the reaction. The I vaginalis enzyme... 

The outcome of these coupled reactions, both reversible under cellular conditions, is that the energy released on oxidation of an aldehyde to a carboxylate group is conserved by the coupled formation of ATP from ADP and Pj. The formation of ATP by phosphoryl group transfer from a substrate such as 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate is referred to as a substrate-level phosphorylation, to distinguish this mechanism from respiration-linked phosphorylation. Substrate-level phosphorylations involve soluble enzymes and chemical intermediates (1,3-bisphosphoglycerate in this case). Respiration-linked phosphorylations, on the other hand, involve membrane -bound enzymes and transmembrane gradients of protons (Chapter 19). 

The formation of ATP (or GTP) at the expense of the energy released by the oxidative decarboxylation of a-ketoglutarate is a substrate-level phosphorylation, like the synthesis of ATP in the glycolytic reactions catalyzed by glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase and pyruvate kinase (see Fig. 14-2). The GTP formed by succinyl-CoA synthetase can donate its terminal phosphoryl group to ADP to form ATP, in a reversible reaction catalyzed by nucleoside diphosphate kinase (p. 505) ... 

Substrate level phosphorylation refers to those reactions associated with the generation of energy by the transfer of phosphate groups in metabolism, and is exemplified by fermentative metabolism where it is the sole source of energy (e.g. yeast and bacteria growing in anaerobic conditions). 

If energy is generated solely by substrate-level phosphorylation, as with anaerobic fermentative metabolism of bacteria and yeast, then the yield is more tightly linked to the amount of energy generated. Generally 10 to 12 kg of cell dry matter can be synthesised per kmol of ATP generated in metabolism. 

Oxidative phosphorylation is the name given to the synthesis of ATP (phosphorylation) that occurs when NADH and FADH2 are oxidized (hence oxidative) by electron transport through the respiratory chain. Unlike substrate level phosphorylation (see Topics J3 and LI), it does not involve phosphorylated chemical intermediates. Rather, a very different mechanism was proposed by Peter Mitchell in 1961, the chemiosmotic hypothesis. This proposes that energy liberated by electron transport is used to create a proton gradient across the mitochondrial inner membrane and that it is this that is used to drive ATP synthesis. Thus the proton gradient couples electron transport and ATP synthesis, not a chemical intermediate. The evidence is overwhelming that this is indeed the way that oxidative phosphorylation works. The actual synthesis of ATP is carried out by an enzyme called ATP synthase located in the inner mitochondrial membrane (Fig. 3). 

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