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Cells must obey the laws of chemistry and thermodynamics. When two molecules react with each other inside a cell, their atoms are rearranged, forming different molecules as reaction products and releasing or consuming energy in the process. Overall, chemical reactions occur only in one direction; that is, the final reaction product molecules cannot spontaneously react, in a reversal of the original process, to reform the original molecules. This directionality of chemical reactions is explained by the fact that molecules only change from states of higher free energy to states of lower free energy. Free energy is the ability to perform work (in this case, the “work” is the rearrangement of atoms in the chemical reaction). When work is performed, some free energy is used and lost, with the result that the process ends at lower free energy. To use a familiar mechanical analogy, water at the top of a hill has the ability to perform the “work” of flowing downhill (i.e., it has high free energy), but, once it has flowed downhill, it cannot flow back up (i.e., it is in a state of low free energy). However, through another work process—that of a pump, for example—the water can be returned to the top of the hill, thereby recovering its ability to flow downhill. In thermodynamic terms, the free energy of the water has been increased by energy from an outside source (i.e., the pump). In the same way, the product molecules of a chemical reaction in a cell cannot reverse the reaction and return to their original state unless energy is supplied by coupling the process to another chemical reaction.
All catalysts, including enzymes, accelerate chemical reactions without affecting their direction. To return to the mechanical analogy, enzymes cannot make water flow uphill, although they can provide specific pathways for a downhill flow. Yet most of the chemical reactions that the cell needs to synthesize new molecules necessary for its growth require an uphill flow. In other words, the reactions require more energy than their starting molecules can provide.
Cells use a single strategy over and over again in order to get around the limitations of chemistry: they use the energy from an energy-releasing chemical reaction to drive an energy-absorbing reaction that would otherwise not occur. A useful mechanical analogy might be a mill wheel driven by the water in a stream. The water, in order to flow downhill, is forced to flow past the blades of the wheel, causing the wheel to turn. In this way, part of the energy from the moving stream is harnessed to move a mill wheel, which may be linked to a winch. As the winch turns, it can be used to pull a heavy load uphill. Thus, the energy-absorbing (but useful) uphill movement of a load can be driven by coupling it directly to the energy-releasing flow of water.
In cells, enzymes play the role of mill wheels by coupling energy-releasing reactions with energy-absorbing reactions. As discussed below, in cells the most important energy-releasing reaction serving a role similar to that of the flowing stream is the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). In turn, the production of ATP molecules in the cells is an energy-absorbing reaction that is driven by being coupled to the energy-releasing breakdown of sugar molecules. In retracing this chain of reactions, it is necessary first to understand the source of the sugar molecules.
Photosynthesis: the beginning of the food chain
Sugar molecules are produced by the process of photosynthesis in plants and certain bacteria. These organisms lie at the base of the food chain, in that animals and other nonphotosynthesizing organisms depend on them for a constant supply of life-supporting organic molecules. Humans, for example, obtain these molecules by eating plants or other organisms that have previously eaten food derived from photosynthesizing organisms.
Plants and photosynthetic bacteria are unique in their ability to convert the freely available electromagnetic energy in sunlight into chemical bond energy, the energy that holds atoms together in molecules and is transferred or released in chemical reactions. The process of photosynthesis can be summarized by the following equation: (solar) energy + CO2 + H2O → sugar molecules + O2.
The energy-absorbing photosynthetic reaction is the reverse of the energy-releasing oxidative decomposition of sugar molecules. During photosynthesis, chlorophyll molecules absorb energy from sunlight and use it to fuel the production of simple sugars and other carbohydrates. The resulting abundance of sugar molecules and related biological products makes possible the existence of nonphotosynthesizing life on Earth.
ATP: fueling chemical reactions
Certain enzymes catalyze the breakdown of organic foodstuffs. Once sugars are transported into cells, they either serve as building blocks in the form of amino acids for proteins and fatty acids for lipids or are subjected to metabolic pathways to provide the cell with ATP. ATP, the common carrier of energy inside the cell, is made from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi). Stored in the chemical bond holding the terminal phosphate compound onto the ATP molecule is the energy derived from the breakdown of sugars. The removal of the terminal phosphate, through the water-mediated reaction called hydrolysis, releases this energy, which in turn fuels a large number of crucial energy-absorbing reactions in the cell. Hydrolysis can be summarized as follows: ATP +H2O → ADP + Pi+ energy.
The formation of ATP is the reverse of this equation, requiring the addition of energy. The central cellular pathway of ATP synthesis begins with glycolysis, a form of fermentation in which the sugar glucose is transformed into other sugars in a series of nine enzymatic reactions, each successive reaction involving an intermediate sugar containing phosphate. In the process, the six-carbon glucose is converted into two molecules of the three-carbon pyruvic acid. Some of the energy released through glycolysis of each glucose molecule is captured in the formation of two ATP molecules.
The second stage in the metabolism of sugars is a set of interrelated reactions called the tricarboxylic acid cycle. This cycle takes the three-carbon pyruvic acid produced in glycolysis and uses its carbon atoms to form carbon dioxide (CO2) while transferring its hydrogen atoms to special carrier molecules, where they are held in high-energy linkage.
In the third and last stage in the breakdown of sugars, oxidative phosphorylation, the high-energy hydrogen atoms are first separated into protons and high-energy electrons. The electrons are then passed from one electron carrier to another by means of an electron-transport chain. Each electron carrier in the chain has an increasing affinity for electrons, with the final electron acceptor being molecular oxygen (O2). As separated electrons and protons, the hydrogen atoms are transferred to O2 to form water. This reaction releases a large amount of energy, which drives the synthesis of a large number of ATP molecules from ADP and Pi. (For further discussion of the electron-transport chain, see below Metabolic functions.)
Most of the cell’s ATP is produced when the products of glycolysis are oxidized completely by a combination of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. The process of glycolysis alone produces relatively small amounts of ATP. Glycolysis is an anaerobic reaction; that is, it can occur even in the absence of oxygen. The tricarboxylic acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation, on the other hand, require oxygen. Glycolysis forms the basis of anaerobic fermentation, and it presumably was a major source of ATP for early life on Earth, when very little oxygen was available in the atmosphere. Eventually, however, bacteria evolved that were able to carry out photosynthesis. Photosynthesis liberated these bacteria from a dependence on the metabolism of organic materials that had accumulated from natural processes, and it also released oxygen into the atmosphere. Over a prolonged period of time, the concentration of molecular oxygen increased until it became freely available in the atmosphere. The aerobic tricarboxylic acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation then evolved, and the resulting aerobic cells made much more efficient use of foodstuffs than their anaerobic ancestors, because they could convert much larger amounts of chemical bond energy into ATP.
The genetic information of cells
Cells can thus be seen as a self-replicating network of catalytic macromolecules engaged in a carefully balanced series of energy conversions that drive biosynthesis and cell movement. But energy alone is not enough to make self-reproduction possible; the cell must contain detailed instructions that dictate exactly how that energy is to be used. These instructions are analogous to the blueprints that a builder uses to construct a house; in the case of cells, however, the blueprints themselves must be duplicated along with the cell before it divides, so that each daughter cell can retain the instructions that it needs for its own replication. These instructions constitute the cell’s heredity.