Hey everyone, so I've been trying to wrap my head around this part of cellular respiration lately. What actually happens to those protons that get pumped out during the electron transport chain? Like, they get shoved into the intermembrane space, right? And then why does building up that whole gradient even matter so much? Last week I was reviewing for a bio quiz and got totally stuck on this—ended up staring at my notes for like an hour feeling dumb because the energy storage thing just wasn't clicking. Anyone got a simple way to think about it? (around 170 chars, but feels longer with the rambling)
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Yeah, I remember getting confused by that too back in college. Those protons don't just hang out forever—they build up a higher concentration in the intermembrane space compared to the matrix inside the mitochondrion. That difference creates this electrochemical gradient, basically a stored form of energy from the electrons moving along. Then, the protons flow back through ATP synthase, and that flow powers the actual making of ATP. It's pretty cool how it turns that gradient into usable energy for the cell. I always thought it was wild that something so tiny drives so much. If you're still piecing it together, checking out a cellular respiration chart really helped me visualize the whole flow — nothing fancy, just cleared up the proton movement for me personally. (about 85 words)