More efficient ATP production

[Meta4]

I'm looking for a way to modify mitochondria to more efficiently produces ATP.

 

Right now i'm considering increasing COX production. Even though it causes cell death. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005272811001605

 

My other idea was to find a more efficient eukaryote and 'swap out' whatever prekaryote out cells merged with long ago. Anyone know of a eukaryote with a higher efficiency rate than 38%

 

Thanks in advance.

[Elite Engineer]

I'm looking for a way to modify mitochondria to more efficiently produces ATP.

 

 

Why induce cell death if you're looking for increased efficiency?

 

Just a thought, what about eukaryotes that produce immense amounts of energy in a short period of time..like a hummingbird?

 

~ee

[Meta4]

Thanks. Hummingbirds are very interesting. From what I read they use ingested sugar for 90% of thier metabolism where humans only use 30%. But what I wasn't able to find out is if their mitochondria actually produced more ATP per glucose molecule.

Which is what I was hoping for. I find it so hard to believe that there is no diversity in cell respiration.

I was kinda hoping that if mitochondria was once a prokaryotic cell, there would be other prokaryotes that breathed differently and if one of those more efficient breathers had combined with eukaryotes, it would have became more efficient mitochondria.

But, it appears that 36 ATP is all i'm going to get out of a glucose molecule.

 

So, to answer why increase the COX?.. Because i'm afraid it's the only way.

 

I should also be more specific here about efficient. I'm trying to stretch food. So, more not faster

[hypervalent_iodine]

Stretching food won't do you any good if your cells undergo apoptosis. Why exactly are you trying to do this?

[CharonY]

What is the 30% based on? The energy of glucose molecule relative to the energy of the ATP generated from it? You have to be aware that the production of ATP is indirect and the bulk is funneled into common (for most eukaryotes) pathways for the creation of a chemiosomtic gradient. There should not be a whole lot variance in terms of efficiency on the subcellular level (especially considering how conserved the system is).

 

What most of the difference in use of nutrients come from is from absorption and transport of the nutrient through the body, but that is entirely based on physiological mechanisms.

[Meta4]

The article didn't say. Actually, it said all metabolism. I'm not sure how that would be measured. One could measure co2 production if the subject wasn't moving. But that doesn't make sense because they were comparing it to a hovering hummingbird, so... Anyhow, it wasn't what I was searching for so I didn't look into the details.

 

I was hoping to find some organism that had another pathway. It looks to me like we lose 6 carbons. Anyhow, since nothing more efficient exists, i'm inventing a fictional pathway.

Anyone much better than me at chemistry want to invent an equation that gives me more ATP?

Or if anyone has a fatty acid equation, that would also work.,

I had this idea to have a process that added to the carbon chain of fatty acids before matabolisming them. Not quite sure how that might ficticiously work., i mean we do have a process that turns sugar into fat, i understand it uses quite a bit of energy to do this, so it's counter productive.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Meta4

[CharonY]

I am not sure what you mean with loss of carbon. The use of sugars for energy generation requires it to get funneled into the TCA cycle, where the majority of NADPH is generated, That is, ultimately, the major source of energy (via respiratory chain). The ATP production during glycolysis is minor in comparison.

If you want to dream up something completely new you would have to think of more efficient ways to a) generate chemiosmotic gradients or b) make better use of the potential difference between electron donor and acceptor. Both would be highly speculative and therefore more suited to the speculations forum.

To re-iterate, substrate level phosphorylation as a whole is usually less efficient than oxidative phosphorylation (you may want to look both terms up and compare them).

[imatfaal]

I am not sure what you mean with loss of carbon. The use of sugars for energy generation requires it to get funneled into the TCA cycle,....

 

My favourite biochem joke

 

[CharonY]

Hrrrnnngggh. I am not sure what is worse. The joke or the fact that I tried to zoom in to check whether there are no errors.