Welcome to MCAT Basics, your ultimate guide to the essential topics you need to master for the MCAT,

brought to you by the physicians at med school coach. Every week, Sam Smith breaks down high-yield

MCAT topics, ensuring you're primed for success on test day. Join Sam as we explore the most

crucial subjects outlined by the AAMC, pulled from official practice materials and third-party resources.

Get ready to elevate your MCAT game with topics tailored to maximize your score potential.

Today's guest host is Alex Starks.

Hello, our goal for today is to master more metabolism, specifically the CRIF cycle, also known as the citric acid cycle,

and also known as the TCA or tricarboxylic acid cycle. So this content is really important

for one major reason. It shows up in both chem-physsection, as well as the bio-biocan

section. This episode is also a continuation in our series on metabolism, and if you recall,

on our previous metabolism podcast, we discussed glycolysis. We focused on that metabolic process as,

like, quote, the robbing of electrons from glucose in order to power an insatiable power factory

called the mitochondria. Where we left off was focusing on the final product of

glycolysis, this three carbon molecule called pyruvate. And I want to stress, again, like the

structure of this molecule being very important. So I'll just review it real quick. So carbon one is a

carboxylate, so a C-O-0 minus. Carbon two is a ketone, so C-double bondo, and then carbon 1 is a carboxylate, so a C-O-0-9. Carbon 2 is a ketone, so C double bondo.

And then carbon 3 is just a boring carbon has three hydrants connected to it.

So last episode, we also discussed how pyruid's journey can continue either in the presence

or absence of oxygen.

So today we're going to continue following the oxygen present or aerobic fate of

pyruvate.

So the first thing that happens is that it's going to enter into the mitochondria because glycolysis

...