Of course, one cannot stick a piece of tape to each carbon atom in the actual glucose molecule. But one can do the next best thing: use radioisotopes to trace the movement of various atoms. Specifically, because carbon dioxide is a gas, using radioactive C-14 allows for the easy detection of the 14CO2 that is given off. Suppose you introduce one glucose molecule that has had all of its carbons radioactively labeled. Suppose further that each step in glycolysis and in the citric acid cycle takes one minute to complete (so glycolysis, for instance, takes ten minutes to complete, the conversion to acetyl CoA takes one minute, and the citric acid cycle takes eight minutes). Draw a plot of time (x-axis) versus radioactivity detected by a gas sensor (y-axis). Label the x-axis with enough time increments so it is clear at what minute the radioactivity was detected. Use differing peak heights to give an indication of the amount of radioactivity detected at that point
Of course, one cannot stick a piece of tape to each carbon atom in the actual glucose
molecule. But one can do the next best thing: use radioisotopes to trace the
movement of various atoms. Specifically, because carbon dioxide is a gas, using
radioactive C-14 allows for the easy detection of the 14CO2 that is given off.
Suppose you introduce one glucose molecule that has had all of its carbons radioactively
labeled. Suppose further that each step in glycolysis and in the citric acid cycle takes one
minute to complete (so glycolysis, for instance, takes ten minutes to complete, the
conversion to acetyl CoA takes one minute, and the citric acid cycle takes eight minutes).
Draw a plot of time (x-axis) versus radioactivity detected by a gas sensor (y-axis). Label
the x-axis with enough time increments so it is clear at what minute the radioactivity
was detected. Use differing peak heights to give an indication of the amount of
radioactivity detected at that point.

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