Fatty Acid Oxidation Part 1

Fatty acids are central molecules in lipid metabolism and are the structures that contain most of the energy in a tracylglycerol. The oxidation of these molecules more energy than a molecule of glucose. This is because the C-H bonds that make up fatty acids are highly reduced while in the glucose molecule most of the carbons are bonded to oxygen. These C-O bonds are already oxidized meaning that these bonds dont have energy to be released. Fatty acid oxidation consists of five processes that generally start in the cytoplasm and are carried out in the mitochondria. The first step is acyl-CoA formation. Acyl-CoA formation is a susbtrate of beta oxidation(which is the third step) and is formed in the cytoplasm by acyl-CoA synthetase. This process requires two ATP(adenosine triphosphate). Once acyl-CoA has been formed it can then be transported into the mitochondrial matrix for oxidation. This transport is carried out by carnitine acyltransferase.