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Endergonic Reaction question?
An endergonic rxn could be best described as one that will…
a) proceed spontaneously w/ the addition of activation energy
b) produce products with more free energy than the reactants
c) not be able to be catalyzed by enzymes
d) release energy
e) produce ATP for energy coupling
answer, and why?
OK, let’s start by dissecting the difference between endergonic and exergonic reactions.
Endergonic means that the overall reaction REQUIRES energy for successful completion.
Exergonic means that the overall reaction RELEASES energy.
Newton’s second law of thermodynamics says that the universe always proceeds in the direction of more chaos. Which has more chaos, high energy or low energy?
High energy!
That means that any reaction releasing energy into the universe will occur more spontaneously than any reaction that does not release energy, and much more spontaneously than any reaction that takes up energy (removes chaos from the universe).
Thus, if you had an ENDERgonic reaction, it would *require* energy.
a) is wrong because only exergonic reactions proceed spontaneously.
c) is wrong because the ability to be catalyzed by an enzyme has nothing to do with the free energy of the reactants and products.
d) is wrong because that is the definition of exergonic.
e) is wrong because not all endergonic reactions produce ATP (although ATP production from ADP is an energonic reaction).
That leaves us with (b), which makes sense, because if your reactants acquire energy during an endergonic process, wouldn’t the products have more energy than the reactants?
Cheers, and good luck with your hw/quiz.
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