Question #4323e

1 Answer
Apr 1, 2016

The β-oxidation of an 18-carbon acid produces "9 mol of Acetyl-CoA, 8 mol of NADH, and 8 mol of FADH"_2.

Explanation:

The β-oxidation pathway for a saturated fatty acid is a four-step cycle.

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A "C"_18 acid (stearic acid) enters as "stearyl-CoA".

Each pass through the cycle removes 2 carbon atoms and generates 1 molecule each of "acetyl-CoA, NADH, and FADH"_2.

The first seven passes through the cycle remove 14 carbon atoms and generate 7 molecules each of "acetyl-CoA, NADH, and FADH"_2.

In the eighth pass, the remaining 4 carbon atoms are converted to 2 molecules of "acetyl-CoA" and 1 each of "NADH" and "FADH"_2.

This makes a total of "9 acetyl-CoA, 8 NADH, and 8 FADH"_2.

The overall equation for the β-oxidation of "stearyl-CoA" is:

"CH"_3("CH"_2)_16"CO-SCoA" + "8FAD" + "8NAD"^+ + "8HSCoA" + "8H"_2"O" → color(red)(9)"CH"_3"CO-SCoA" + color(red)(8)"NADH" + color(red)(8)"FADH"_2 + "8H"^+