During cellular respiration, the first step is glycolysis where the glucose is split into 2 pyruvates, 2 NADH, and 2 ATP. The pyruvate either goes through the citric acid cycle or goes through lactic acid fermentation. If you remove the citric acid cycle and fermentation, is there a specific way to reduce pyruvate? I am relatively new to chemistry and I was wondering if pyruvate can either store additional electrons or if it can get reduced to another substance and collect additional electrons. If pyruvate doesn't get reduced in any scenario, can ATP get reduced?
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$\begingroup$ Role of ATP is to provide energy to reactions by P-O-P bond hydrolysis. It does not get reduced in redox sense. $\endgroup$– PoutnikJan 11 at 7:39
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$\begingroup$ ethanol is the other very common product of reduction of pyruvate (after it's been decarboxylated). There are of course many other anaerobic fermentation schemes that are more complicated but all of them balance out the NADH. $\endgroup$– AndrewJan 11 at 14:08
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$\begingroup$ Thank you, that is helpful but what is the chemical reaction for pyruvate to ethanol? $\endgroup$– AakarshJan 11 at 19:58
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