The conversion of malate to oxaloacetate in the TCA cycle reduces which cofactor?

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Multiple Choice

The conversion of malate to oxaloacetate in the TCA cycle reduces which cofactor?

Explanation:
In this step of the TCA cycle, malate is oxidized to oxaloacetate by malate dehydrogenase. The electrons (a hydride) are transferred to NAD+, reducing it to NADH. This is why NAD+ is the cofactor that gets reduced here. The other cofactors don’t participate in this particular redox step: FAD is reduced later in a different step (succinate to fumarate), NADP+ is mainly used in biosynthetic pathways like the pentose phosphate pathway, and CoA is involved in acetyl-CoA related reactions, not this malate oxidation.

In this step of the TCA cycle, malate is oxidized to oxaloacetate by malate dehydrogenase. The electrons (a hydride) are transferred to NAD+, reducing it to NADH. This is why NAD+ is the cofactor that gets reduced here. The other cofactors don’t participate in this particular redox step: FAD is reduced later in a different step (succinate to fumarate), NADP+ is mainly used in biosynthetic pathways like the pentose phosphate pathway, and CoA is involved in acetyl-CoA related reactions, not this malate oxidation.

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