Question

True or false and can you please help explain why.

1.

a.  An individual eats a sweet potato, which is a food containing high amounts of maltose. For each maltose molecule ingested, a cell produces 32 net ATP.

b. In a person with a respiratory system disorder such as emphysema, carbon dioxide accumulates in the blood and becomes toxic.

c. Plants can create a variety of macromolecules (carbs, proteins, lipids) from G3P.

d. glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate is an intermediary in both photosynthesis and cell respiration.

e. In an ecosystem, the producer is dependent on both consumers and decomposers

Answer 1

a) False, Maltose is a disaccharide, it is composed of two molecules of glucose. One molecule of glucose produces about 38 ATP after complete aerobic respiration. Hence, two molecules will give twice the amount of ATP.

b) True, Emphysema, also called pulmonary emphysema, condition characterized by widespread destruction of the gas-exchanging tissues of the lungs, resulting in abnormally large air spaces. Lungs affected by emphysema show loss of alveolar walls and destruction of alveolar capillaries. As a result, the surface available for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between inhaled air and blood traversing the lungs is reduced.

c) True, Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate is an intermediate in many biosynthetic reaction pathways for the synthesis of carbohydrates, amino acids for protein synthesis as well as lipids. It can be converted to pyruvate and subsequently acetyl coA for protein or lipid synthesis or could be utilized in gluconeogenesis and calvin cycle for glucose generation.

d) True, In photosynthesis, it is the first compound formed from CO2 fixation in calvin cycle of C3 plants and in cellular respiration it is an intermediate of glycolytic pathway.

e) True, Producers, consumers, and decomposers all interrelate in food chains and food webs and are dependent on one another for survival. Decomposers are responsible for recycling the nutrients consumed by consumers back into the ecosystem to be used by producers again.