{"id":264164,"date":"2025-07-21T11:26:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T11:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=264164"},"modified":"2025-07-21T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T11:27:00","slug":"as-a-result-of-the-oxidation-of-nadh-what-happens-to-the-proton-h-concentration-in-the-inter-membrane-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/21\/as-a-result-of-the-oxidation-of-nadh-what-happens-to-the-proton-h-concentration-in-the-inter-membrane-space\/","title":{"rendered":"As a result of the oxidation of NADH, what happens to the proton (H+) concentration in the inter membrane space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As a result of the oxidation of NADH, what happens to the proton (H+) concentration in the inter membrane space? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A. It decreases <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B. It increases <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>C. It doesn\u2019t change<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-6-color\">The correct answer and explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is <strong>B. It increases.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Explanation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The oxidation of NADH occurs during cellular respiration, specifically in the electron transport chain (ETC) within the mitochondria. NADH donates electrons to Complex I of the electron transport chain. As the electrons are passed along the chain, energy is released, and this energy is used to pump protons (H+) from the mitochondrial matrix into the intermembrane space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the process in more detail:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NADH Oxidation<\/strong>: NADH, produced in earlier stages like glycolysis and the citric acid cycle, loses its electrons at Complex I of the ETC. NADH is oxidized to NAD+ in this step.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Proton Pumping<\/strong>: The energy from the electrons passing through the electron transport chain complexes (I, III, and IV) is used to actively pump protons (H+) from the mitochondrial matrix into the intermembrane space. This creates a proton gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Proton Gradient<\/strong>: The movement of protons into the intermembrane space results in an increase in proton concentration in that space. This creates both a concentration gradient and an electrochemical gradient (the proton motive force) that drives ATP synthesis via ATP synthase.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ATP Synthase<\/strong>: The protons then flow back into the matrix through ATP synthase, which uses this flow to synthesize ATP, a process known as oxidative phosphorylation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>As the oxidation of NADH leads to proton pumping into the intermembrane space, the proton concentration increases, which is a critical step in producing ATP and maintaining cellular energy. Therefore, the proton concentration in the intermembrane space increases as a result of NADH oxidation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a result of the oxidation of NADH, what happens to the proton (H+) concentration in the inter membrane space? A. It decreases B. It increases C. It doesn\u2019t change The correct answer and explanation is: The correct answer is B. It increases. Explanation: The oxidation of NADH occurs during cellular respiration, specifically in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}