Question

267 moles of NADH are produced by the Citric Acid Cycle (CAC). How many moles of glucose needed to be broken down during glycolysis in order to produce enough pyruvate for the CAC to produce this many moles of NADH?

Answer 1

45 moles

Step-by-step explanation:

From glycolysis, 1 mole of glucose gives 2 moles of pyruvate which undergoes citric acid cycle.

1 mole of pyruvate undergoes citric acid cycle (After conversion to acetyl-CoA) gives 3 moles of NADH.

Also,

2 moles of pyruvate undergoes citric acid cycle (After conversion to acetyl-CoA) gives 6 moles of NADH.

Thus,

6 moles of NADH are produced from 2 moles of pyruvate or 1 mole of glucose.

1 mole of NADH is produced from 1/6 mole of glucose

267 moles of NADH are produced from
`\frac {1}{6}* 267` moles of glucose.

Thus, moles of glucose needed to be broken ≅ 45 moles