BiologyCode 9700
Energy
What this topic asks you to be able to do
- outline why living organisms require energy, with reference to active transport, movement and anabolic reactions such as those taking place in DNA replication and protein synthesis
- describe why ATP is well suited to be the universal energy currency, in terms of its features
- state the two ways ATP is synthesised: chemiosmosis across chloroplast and mitochondrial membranes, and phosphate transfer in substrate-linked reactions
- explain how carbohydrates, lipids and proteins compare with one another for the energy values they provide as respiratory substrates
- state that the respiratory quotient (RQ) gives the ratio between carbon dioxide molecules produced and oxygen molecules taken in, during respiration
- work out, from respiration equations, the RQ value of each of several respiratory substrates
- describe and carry out experiments with simple respirometers to find the RQ of small invertebrates (e.g. blowfly larvae) or of seeds that are germinating