How can you identify a catabolic reaction?

Question

Accepted Answer

All right. Hello everyone. So this question is asking us which of the following best describes a cab bolic reaction. And here we have four different answer choices which we'll read later on in this video for now, let's recall the ways in which metabolic reactions can be divided. Now, there are two main categories depending on what's happening during their reaction. So within the metabolic reactions that take place in our cells, we can distinguish between those that are catic and those that are anabolic. So a catholic reaction is one that takes bigger starting materials and breaks them down into smaller less complex products. This is going to release energy as a result. Anabolic reactions do the opposite, right. Anabolic reactions take smaller starting materials. In other words, building blocks and use them to synthesize bigger more complex products. This requires the input of energy. So as we can see in both cases, the structure of the starting material is fundamentally changing. In catic reactions, bonds are breaking and in anabolic reactions, bonds are being formed. So now let's go through our options. Option A says energy is consumed to build complex molecules from simpler ones. This is not true, right? Rather option A is actually describing an anabolic reaction where we're taking simpler smaller building blocks and using them to create bigger more complex molecules. Option B says that large molecules are broken down into smaller molecules releasing energy. This is correct, right? Because the bonds broken as a result of a catic reaction oftentimes releases energy and produces a smaller simpler product. Option C says molecules are rearranged without breaking or forming new bonds. This cannot be true, right? Because as mentioned before, catic and anabolic reactions require the breaking or forming of new bonds respectively. C is describing an isomerization reaction. And last but not least, option D says energy is stored in the chemical bonds of complex molecules. Now option D is not correct because it's actually describing a property or a characteristic of anabolic reactions because the fact that energy is stored in chemical bonds of complex molecules explains why anabolic reactions require the input of energy that energy needs to be put into the reaction for these bonds to form. So there you have it. Our correct answer here is going to be option B in the multiple choice. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching and I hope you found this helpful.

How can you identify a catabolic reaction?

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Catabolic Reactions

Energy Release

Biochemical Pathways