Biology › Section D · Energy: metabolism, respiration, photosynthesis › Topic D.5
Pyruvate oxidation and the citric acid cycle
Glycolysis ends with pyruvate - and with most of glucose's energy still locked inside it. The next stage, given oxygen, is where that energy finally comes out: pyruvate is stripped to an acetyl group, handed to a carrier, and fed into a spinning loop of eight reactions that peels electrons off carbon and parks them in NADH and FADH2, ready for the big ATP harvest ahead.
In this topic
- After glycolysis: energy still on the table
- Pyruvate enters the mitochondrion
- Breaking down pyruvate: three steps
- One cycle, three names
- A closed loop in the matrix
- Steps 1-4: citrate to succinyl CoA
- Steps 5-8: succinate back to oxaloacetate
- Worked example: where do the six carbons go?
- Worked example: the ledger after the cycle
- Regulation and the amphibolic loop
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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