Pyruvate oxidation and the citric acid cycle
Pyruvate dehydrogenase converts pyruvate to acetyl-CoA with CO₂ release and NADH formation.
Key knowledge
Pyruvate dehydrogenase converts pyruvate to acetyl-CoA with CO₂ release and NADH formation. One canonical citric-acid-cycle turn per acetyl group regenerates oxaloacetate and yields two CO₂, three NADH, one reduced flavin equivalent and one ATP/GTP equivalent. The cycle also supplies biosynthetic intermediates.
Conditions and scope
- This is canonical oxidative-cycle accounting; organisms can use variants or incomplete/reductive pathways.
- CO₂ released in the first turn need not contain the newly entered acetyl carbons; intermediate removal requires replenishment.
Sources · 1
References
Sources retain their recorded scope. A source link alone does not establish verification of every statement.
Evidence and review
Read acetyl-CoA entry, eight-step cycle, per-turn products and biosynthetic connections.
2026-10-10 · Independent AI editorial review: All 115 actual compact claims, hypotheses, equation/variable/unit tables and 251 origin semantic links independently read. All exact author source-binding rows and disclosed extents assessed; targeted original bodies or specifically identified indexed primary passages rechecked below. All retained biology compact records read for combined breadth. Independent AI editorial content and practical common-core inventory review; no human specialist, degree/laboratory proficiency, whole-textbook certification or experimental replication. Receipt: biology-independent-content-inventory-review.1.
Entry details
Permanent link to this entry ↗- Record identity
- uni-bio-pyruvate-tca
- Revision
- core.1
- Structured reference record
- University core expansion