Fermentation generates ATP?

[crazyasian]

Does anybody know if fermentation generates ATP? I forget which mcat practice material talked about fermentation generating ATP. I remember my biochem teacher made it a big deal that fermentation doesn't generate ATP, it only regenerates NAD+ for glycolysis to continue. Can anybody help me figure out which is right?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[PiBond]

Does anybody know if fermentation generates ATP? I forget which mcat practice material talked about fermentation generating ATP. I remember my biochem teacher made it a big deal that fermentation doesn't generate ATP, it only regenerates NAD+ for glycolysis to continue. Can anybody help me figure out which is right?

there can be different definitions for fermentation. for the MCAT, just know that fermentation does regenerate NAD+ for glycolysis so that it can keep running in the absence of oxygen. in this realm, it is not producing ATP

if you're curious, fermentation can also refer to the fact that we don't use oxygen as an electron acceptor (we use something else in the cell instead). that, by biochemical definition, is also fermentation. in this sense, we are producing ATP through glycolysis

 

[crazyasian]

Thanks. That helps alot.