bacteria undergo TCA?

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icecoldstar

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On AAMC 10, it says bacteria cells and human cells are alike in their ability to produce ATP via ATP synthase. However, how the hell does bacteria do that if it doesnt have mitochondria??? and from what i remember from higher level cell biology class, bacteria only do glycolysis.. and ATP synthase is used in electron transport chain, which bacteria dont have. any help?

Original question is like this:
Most bacteria and human cells are alike in:
A. the ability to produce ATP via ATP synthase
B. The chemical composition of ribosmes
C. Enclosure of cell walls
D. some random bs crap thats wrong
 
bacteria will undergo a more simplified version of the eukaryotic TCA cycle directly in their cytosol. Rememer that the TCA cycle is a lot more than just an energy factory; it also produces key intermediates that are taken out for fatty acid synthesis (e.g. Acetyl CoA and biotin) and amino acid synthesis (eg. oxaloacetate to aspartate and alpha-ketoglutarate to glutamate via transaminases), which bacteria, just like eukaryotes, need to survive.
 
Bacteria need a way to produce ATP to have energy. Bacteria use their membranes to produce energy. Even though I don't think they have a specific ATP synthase, they still have transporters that facilitate the process of energy production.
 
ATP Synthase is simply an enzyme that takes a Phosphate and binds it to ADP and forms ATP. The enzyme requires energy input which can be from many many many sources (such as the hydrogen ion current or electron chain, etc).
 
Please clearly mark in the title of the post that the question is from an AAMC practice exam. Thanks.
 
how the hell does bacteria do that ((oxidative phsophorylation)) if it doesnt have mitochondria???

Yeah, the krebs cycle is pretty simple, just a bunch of enzymes that do their thing and produce lots of high energy molecules. It's the electron transport chain and the use of ATP Synthase where things get interesting. The short answer is that bacteria pump protons outside their membrane (yet inside their cell wall), and they have ATP Synthase mounted in their cell membranes.

The long answer can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidative_phosphorylation#Prokaryotic_electron_transport_chains
 
Mitochondria are bacteria. The endosymbiotic theory posits that eukaryotes phagocytosized bacteria to serve as energy factories. The entire TCA cycle, with some exceptions, is bacterial in origin.

In fact, bacterial metabolism is more efficient and far more metabolically diverse than eukaryotic metabolism. You can give E. coli some glucose, ammonia (or in some strains, NO3) and trace minerals and it'll synthesize all the vitamins, amino acids, proteins, lipids, DNA, RNA by itself. If you tried the same thing, you'd starve to death because your own machinery is utterly incapable of doing so.
 
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