Question

What do you mean by oxidative phosphorylation?

Answer 1

Oxidative phosphorylation is the mechanism of ATP synthesis during the process of respiration. In this process, the energy derived from the electron transport chain is utilised for the synthesis of ATP. When the electrons are transferred from one carrier to the other in the electron transport chain, protons get pumped into the inter-membrane space of the mitochondria creating a proton gradient across the membrane. When these protons pass through the ATP synthase enzyme complex, ATP gets synthesised. Since, production of proton gradient needed for the synthesis of ATP is provided by the energy of oxidation–reduction reaction, this process is called oxidative phosphorylation.