Question from REA

[Daphis]

Hello

I was hoping someone could help me out with this question from the REA prep book, as usual their explanation is not very good.:

Complete Beta-oxidation of palmitoyl CoA would theoretically produce how many equivalents of ATP? Assume 3 equivalents for each NADH/H+ produced and 2 equivalents for each FADH2.

Answer: 131

Thanks very much!

[milkvincent]

First of all palmaltoyl CoA has 16 carbons.

This means that it can go through 7 beta-oxidations.
Each round of oxidation gives you 1 NADH and 1 FADH2
7 rounds give you 7 NADH and 7 FADH2
Also, complete beta-oxidation of palmaltoyl CoA gives you 8 Acetyl CoA (16/2 = 8)

After each Krebs Cycle, an Acetyl CoA yields 3 NADH, 1 FADH2 and 1 ATP (GTP).
Hence, after 8 rounds of Krebs Cycle, there will be 24 NADH, 8 FADH2 and 8 ATP.
Combining those NADH and FADH2 from beta-oxidation, it's a total of 31 NADH, 15 FADH2 and 8 ATP
Work that conversion of NADH and FADH2 out: 31(NADH) * 3 (ATP/NADH) + 15 (FADH2) *2 (ATP/FADH2) + 8 ATP = 131 ATP