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Tracing Glucose Through Cellular Respiration

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State

This capstone traces one glucose molecule's full breakdown, from glycolysis through the citric acid cycle and the electron transport chain, tallying its ATP, NADH, and FADH2 at each stage.

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Counting only the four ATP made directly by substrate-level phosphorylation badly undercounts glucose's real yield — most of the energy is banked in NADH and FADH2 until the electron transport chain cashes it in.