Internal Parts & Metabolism

Wow! So interesting, I have never heard about this. I’m gonna do a quick research on it, but from what I’ve read it seems like it does not even provide nearly as many ATP as mitochondria does. However, I must point out that this is not correct

neither mitochondria nor hydrogenosome need glucose, they both use acetyl-CoA, a derivative of pyruvate, this process may happen already in the citoplasm (outside mitochondria) in the case of mitochondria (though it may also happen inside it), though it seems like in hydrogenosome it’s imperative to occur inside the organelle. The big difference between these organelles is the usage of acetyl-CoA, while in the mitochondria it is used with the final motivation of activating the electron transport chain, where ATP is generated, the hydrogenosome use acetyl-CoA directly to produce succinil-CoA, this is later transformed into succinate with production of 1 ATP, the final byproduct would be acetate.

In contrast with mitochondria, where the final byproduct must always be water and CO2, hydrogenosome produce acetate, molecular hydrogen and CO2, it means that, while mitochondria is capable of fully oxidizing pyruvate, hydrogenosome is not so it should never generate as much ATP as mitochondria does.

This metabolic pathway is actually pretty interesting though there are some missing crutial biochemical information that I will try to find out whether the scientific community has already discovered or not.

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