There is a certain chemical logic to the steps of the citric acid cycle. One particular functional group plays a large role in facilitating most of the chemistry that goes on in the reactions. This group is electron withdrawing, which helps to stabilize carbanion intermediates and increase the reactivity of the methyl group of acetyl CoA. What is this functional group

Carbonyl Groups

Explanation:

Electron-withdrawing substituents stabilize the carbon atoms in its surrounding. These chemical groups are Carbonyl groups  which withdraw electrons because of the inductive effect and presence of double bond between C and O and also because of the polarity of the two atoms (Carbon and oxygen)

each chemical family is represented as a group or column on the periodic table. based on chemical properties, there are 6 types of chemical families. group 1 represents alkali metals, group 2 represents alkaline earth metals, groups 3 to 12 represent transition metals, groups 13 to 16 represent non-metals and other metals, group 17 represents halogens and group 18 represents noble gases.