Bioenergetika

The textbook "Bioenergetics" should serve as an introduction to the study of bioenergetics. This field of science is currently highly actual, as the results of the bioenergetics research in recent years clearly show that bioenergetics processes in living systems can "serve" not only to transformation of energy, but also affect the course of processes such as apoptosis, aging, origin and development of many diseases (especially neurodegenerative). These facts clearly indicate the need for the existence of quality teaching texts that would allow students to acquire the necessary information and knowledge in this scientific discipline in an acceptable way. For the above mentioned reasons, we decided to create these textbooks, which are in the form of ten chapters, which naturally and logically follow each other. One chapter basically presents one lecture within the course of Bioenergetics, which is realized at the Faculty of Science of the Pavel Jozef Šafárik University in Košice at the master's and doctoral degree of the study program "Biophysics". At the same time, these texts can also be used for teaching in the study subject Biochemistry, which is taught in the bachelor's and master's degree programs of the study programs "Biochemistry" resp. “Biophysics”. We would like to express our conviction that this textbook could in some way also help researchers working in the field of the energy transformation in biological organisms and the phenomena associated with this transformation. This textbook presents knowledge about the basic concepts of bioenergetics, the mechanisms of processes such as glycolysis and the Krebs cycle (in addition to a detailed and comprehensive description of these processes, there is also a general view of the interconnectedness of these processes and their incorporation into a compact view of the overall energy transformation in biological organisms), the structure and functionality of biological membranes (this area is necessary for a better understanding of the knowledge presented in the following chapters). In the following chapters, the textbook deals with the description of the structure and function of mitochondria, with great emphasis on the properties and mechanisms of functioning of the four complexes of the respiratory chain and ATP-synthase. These complexes create the basis for the existence of the "most important" process in bioenergetics, oxidative phosphorylation. In the final two chapters, the mechanisms of the processes that produce photosynthesis, its light and dark phases, are presented. There is presented relevant information about this "second" most important bioenergetics process taking place in many biological organisms and providing the possibility of transforming the energy of electromagnetic radiation into energy "hidden" in the chemical bonds of certain chemical molecules. We want to express our conviction that the textbooks "Bioenergetics" will be a good "helper and inspirer" for many students who want to learn as much as possible about the fascinating structures and mechanisms for energy transformation in living systems, without which it would not be possible existence of life as we know it.