Question

 Stage 2: Fatty Acid Degradation to Acetyl CoA (The Fatty Acid Cycle, aka "B-Oxidation")

 1. In the space below, draw the reaction for the activation of palmitic acid, a saturated 16-carbon fatty acid.

 2. In the space below, fill in the structure for the reactant acyl CoA and draw all of the products that result from one turn of the fatty acid cycle. Is this reaction an oxidation or a reduction?

 3. Besides fatty acid oxidation, glycerol (the other product of triglyceride digestion) is also catabolized. What happens to glycerol?

Answer 1

1.

The overall initiating step is the reaction of the fatty acid with coenzyme A in a thioester formation. This reaction requires energy and is therefore coupled with the hydrolysis of ATP to AMP. The activated long chain fatty acid is carried across the mitochondria membrane by an organic compound called carnitine.

2.

This is a oxidation reaction

3.