7. Energy and Metabolism
Negative & Positive Feedback
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So now that we've introduced negative feedback in our last lesson video, in this video we're going to introduce positive feedback, which is pretty much the exact opposite of negative feedback, and that's because positive feedback is when the final product of a metabolic pathway stimulates an earlier step in the same metabolic pathway. And so because positive feedback stimulates an earlier step in the same pathway, positive feedback pretty much acts like the green light to further stimulate metabolic pathways. And so notice down below, we're showing you an image of a green light. And so just like when you're driving, the green light represents stimulation of your car where your car is going to accelerate and speed up. The, positive feedback here is going to act like the green light for metabolic pathways. And so notice here in this metabolic pathway the final product is product f and product f notice is going backwards to stimulate an earlier step of the same metabolic pathway, essentially stimulating enzyme 1 here so that enzyme 1 is able to operate faster, even faster than it normally does, stimulating this enzyme. And so ultimately when the enzyme 1 is stimulated it's going to create more of product b, or molecule b here. And then ultimately, this is going to lead to even more of the final product f. And so if a cell is in a scenario where they want to create even more of the final product of a metabolic pathway, then that is when positive feedback can be very very useful to the cell because positive feedback acts like the green light to the entire metabolic pathway allowing even more of the final product F to be made. And so the positive sign that you see here, the plus, represents the stimulation of the enzyme here. And so this here concludes our introduction to positive feedback and we'll be able to get some practice applying the concepts that we've learned in our next few videos. So I'll see you all there.
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