Guiding Questions
Metabolism, Energy, and Life
- Explain the role of catabolic and anabolic pathways in cellular metabolism.
- Distinguish between kinetic and potential energy.
- Explain why an organism is considered an open system.
- Explain the first and second laws of thermodynamics in your own words.
- Explain why highly ordered living organisms do not violate the second law of thermodynamics.
- Write and define each component of the equation for free-energy change.
- Distinguish between exergonic and endergonic reactions in terms of free energy change.
- Explain why metabolic disequilibrium is one of the defining features of life.
- List the three main kinds of cellular work. Explain in general terms how cells obtain the energy to do cellular work.
- Describe the structure of ATP and identify the major class of macromolecules to which ATP belongs.
- Explain how ATP performs cellular work.
Enzymes Are Catalytic Proteins
- Describe the function of enzymes in biological systems.
- Explain why an investment of activation energy is necessary to initiate a spontaneous reaction.
- Explain how enzyme structure determines enzyme specificity.
- Explain the induced-fit model of enzyme function.
- Describe the mechanisms by which enzymes lower activation energy.
- Explain how substrate concentration affects the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction.
- Explain how temperature, pH, cofactors, and enzyme inhibitors can affect enzyme activity.
The Control of Metabolism
- Explain how metabolic pathways are regulated.
- Explain how the location of enzymes in a cell may help order metabolism
