Post 55: The Krebs cycle 🔄
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Fact: Nobody learns the Krebs cycle unless they work directly with it 💀.
However, it’s fascinating to see how a set of proteins assembled over millions of years to generate an energy battery capable of powering the vast majority of life forms.
The way it’s taught seems pedagogically incorrect to me. In my opinion, it would be better to emphasize its importance as an energy hub in almost all life forms. Then, explore the cases where it’s different and why, touching more on the evolutionary aspect. This contrasts with how we are typically taught to memorize enzyme by enzyme with their respective substrate-product pairs, most of which we forget over time.
Additionally, I think we should rely on audiovisual material rather than the images from Alberts-Lehninger … we’re not in the 2000s anymore. For example, these animations are incredible. I never realized the vastness of the oxo-dehydrogenase complex. It’s a titan! Here are two videos that put it into context:
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