Question

During oxidation of a fatty acid what is the product that contains the fully oxidized form of carbon?

Answer 1

During oxidation of a fatty acid the end product which contain the oxidised form of carbon is CO2

Oxidation of fatty acids takes place in three stages.
1) In the first stage β oxidation-the fatty acids undergo oxidative removal of successive two-carbon units in the form of acetyl-CoA, starting from the carboxyl end of the fatty acyl chain. For example, the 18-carbon fatty acid Stearic acid undergoes eight passes through this oxidative sequence, in each pass losing two carbons as acetyl-CoA. At the end of eight cycles the last two carbons of Stearic acid ( C-17 and C-18) are left as acetyl-CoA. The overall result is the conversion of the 18-carbon chain of stearic acid to 9(nine) two-carbon acetyl-CoA molecules. Formation of each molecule of acetyl-CoA requires removal of four hydrogen atoms (two pairs of electrons and four H+) from the fatty acyl moiety by the action of dehydrogenases.
2) In the second stage of fatty acid oxidation the acetyl residues of acetyl-CoA are oxidized to CO2 via the citric acid cycle, which also takes place in the mitochondrial matrix. Acetyl-CoA derived from fatty acid oxidation thus enters a final common pathway of oxidation along with acetyl-CoA derived from glucose via glycolysis and pyruvate oxidation.

The first two stages of fatty acid oxidation produce the reduced electron carriers NADH and FADH2,

3) In the third stage donation of electrons to the mitochondrial respiratory chain occurs, through which the electrons are carried to oxygen. Coupled to this flow of electrons is the phosphorylation of ADP to ATP. The energy released by fatty acid oxidation is conserved as ATP.