FE 462 BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Metabolic Stoichiometry and Energetics
INTRODUCTION
A living cell is a complex chemical reactor in which more than 1000 independant enzyme-catalyzed reaction occur.
The total of all chemical reaction activities which occur in the cell is called metabolism.
Two different type of energy, ligth and chemical, are trapped by inhabitants of the microbial world.The energy obtained from the environment is typically stored and shuttled in convenient high-energy intermadiates such as ATP. The cell uses this energy to perform three types of work: chemical synthesis of large or complex molecules (growth), transport of ionic and neutral substances into or out of the cell or its internal organelles, and mechanical work required fro cell division and motion.
All these processes are, by themselves, nonspontaneous and result in an increase of free energy of the cell.
Metabolic pathways in e.coli
Synthesis of macromolecules from simple nutrients

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