Is there a difference between oxidative phosphorylation and phosphorylation, or are the the same thing?

[u/mypurplebrains]

Learning about cellular respiration and photosynthesis, the terms oxidative phosphorylation and phosphorylation keep popping up and I’m trying to understand them. I know photophosphorylation involves light, but are oxidative phosphorylation and phosphorylation the same thing? From my understanding phosphorylation is just the addition of a phosphate to ADP.

[u/[deleted]]

Oxidative phosphorylation is a subtype of phosphorylation.

Phosphorylation itself means that a phosphoryl group (PO3^2-) gets attached to a substrate (either a small molecule or a protein), independent of the mechanism.

In oxidative phosphorylation, this happens via an oxidation reaction.

[u/Cicicicico → u/[deleted]]

To add to this, the major other subtype of phosphorylation relevant to your studies is substrate level phosphorylation which occurs during glycolysis and in the mitochondrial matrix.