The Carriers of Electron Transport:
The Energy Cascade in the Mitochondria
The principal questions about the electron transport system are: How are the electrons passed from one carrier to another in the series? How is this progression coupled to ATP synthesis? and, Where and how is oxygen utilized? Although the biochemical details of this process are complicated, the basic reactions consist of a number of redox reactions now familiar to us. In general, the carrier compounds and their associated enzymes are arranged in linear sequence and are reduced and oxidized while shuttling the electrons along to their final acceptor (figure 8.20, part 2).