Question

Which enzyme is required in final step of alcohol fermentation?

Answer 1

• Alcohol fermentation is also known as ethanol fermentation
• Sugar molecules like sucrose, glucose, and fructose is getting converted into ethanol and carbon dioxide and producing energy for the cellular metabolism.
• The diagram showing alcohol fermentation is attached below, there are 3 steps in it
• Step A: This step is called glycolysis since the glucose molecule is cleaved into two pyruvate molecules.An oxidation reaction is occurring and glucose is converted to pyruvate
• Step B: Decarboxylation(removal of CO₂)of pyruvate to form acetaldehyde by the enzyme pyruvate decarboxylase
• Step C: Reduction of acetaldehyde to form ethanol.This step is the last step and is catalyzed by the enzyme Alcohol dehydrogenase. So the enzyme required for the final step of alcohol fermentation is Alcohol dehydrogenase.
• The abbreviations of NADH, ATP, and ADP are Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, Adenosine triphosphate and adenosine diphosphate respectively.
• NADH is a coenzyme which is essential for the activity of the enzymes.
• ATP and ADP are energy storage molecules which on interconversion releases lot of energy which is used for the biological processes.
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• During fermentation, the energy is stored in the ATP molecule and is cleaved to release energy whenever the body is doing some work.
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