Quarter 2 – Module 5

Aerobic vs. Anaerobic

Respiration

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AEROBIC VS. ANAEROBIC RESPIRATION

What Is In?
Living cells require transfusions of energy from outside sources to perform
their many tasks—for example, assembling polymers, pumping substances across
membranes, moving, and reproducing. Herbivores
i obtain energy for its cells by
eating the leaves of plants; some other animals obtain energy by feeding on other
organisms that eat plants. The energy stored in the organic molecules of food
ultimately comes from the sun. Energy flows into an ecosystem as sunlight and exits
as heat; in contrast, the chemical elements essential to life are recycled.
Photosynthesis generates oxygen and organic molecules that are used by the
mitochondria of eukaryotes (including plants and algae) as fuel for cellular respiration.
Respiration breaks this fuel down, generating ATP. The waste products of this type
of respiration, carbon dioxide and water, are the raw materials for photosynthesis.
(Reece, et al. 2014)
Since in the previous module you learned about how photosynthesis
generates oxygen and glucose. In this module, you will learn how cells harvest the
chemical energy stored in organic molecules and use it to generate ATP, the
molecule that drives most cellular work through the process of cellular respiration. In
order for you to grasp the connection of this lesson to you, try to describe what
happens when you breathe? As you know, respiration is the process of breathing.
However, cellular respiration is not the same thing as breathing, but they are closely
related. When you breathe in, you take in the oxygen your cells need for cellular
respiration. When you breathe out, you get rid of the carbon dioxide that your cells
produce during cellular respiration. Cellular respiration by technical definition
includes aerobic and anaerobic process

Here are the terms that will guide you as you go along the module:
Acetyl coA - Acetyl coenzyme A; the entry compound for the citric acid cycle in
cellular respiration, formed from a two-carbon fragment of pyruvate attached to a
coenzyme.
Aerobic respiration - A catabolic pathway for organic molecules, using oxygen (O2)
as the final electron acceptor in an electron transport chain and ultimately producing
ATP. This is the most efficient catabolic pathway and is carried out in most
eukaryotic cells and many prokaryotic organisms. It requires oxygen
Anaerobic respiration – catabolic pathway in which inorganic molecules other than
oxygen accept electrons at the “downhill” end of electron transport chains. It does
not require oxygen.
ADP – Adenosine Diphospate, nucleotide that functions in the transfer of energy
during the catabolism of glucose, formed by the removal of a phosphate from
adenosine triphosphate and composed of adenine, ribose, and two phosphate group
ATP - Adenosine Triphosphate, a nucleotide found in the mitochondria of all plant
and animal cells. It is the major source of energy for cellular reactions, this energy
being released during its conversion to ADP
Electron Transport Chain – contains the chain members (carrier and protein
complexes, ATP synthase complex and ATP protein. These membrane proteins
shuttle electrons during the redox reactions. The electrons will be used to produce
ATP by chemiosmosis.
����� - the reduced form of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)
Glycolysis – the breakdown of glucose to pyruvic acid, means “sugar splitting” that
occurs in the cytosol of the cell. It does not require oxygen to breakdown glucose
into pyruvate.

Krebs cycle – completes the metabolic breakdown of glucose to carbon dioxide and
produces 2 ATP.
NADH - stands for "nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) + hydrogen (H)." This
chemical occurs naturally in the body and plays a role in the chemical process that
generates energy
Oxidative phosphorylation – a process occurring in mitochondria and accounts for
majority of the ATP production.

Note: Citric acid cycle

is the same as Krebs
cycle

What is it?
Cellular respiration can be aerobic (meaning "with oxygen") or anaerobic
("without oxygen"). Which route the cells take to create the ATP depends solely on
whether or not there is enough oxygen present to undergo aerobic respiration. If
there is not enough oxygen present for aerobic respiration, then some organisms will
resort to using anaerobic respiration or other anaerobic processes such as
fermentation. In order to maximize the amount of ATP made in the process of
cellular respiration, oxygen must be present. As eukaryotic species evolved over
time, they became more complex with more organs and body parts. It became
necessary for cells to be able to create as much ATP as possible to keep these new
adaptations running properly. Early Earth's atmosphere had very little oxygen. It
wasn't until after autotrophs became abundant and released large amounts of
oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis that aerobic respiration could evolve. The
oxygen allowed each cell to produce many times more ATP than their ancient
ancestors that relied on anaerobic respiration. This process happens in the cell
organelle called the mitochondria. More primitive are the processes that many
organisms undergo when not enough oxygen is present. The most commonly known
anaerobic processes are known as fermentation. Most anaerobic processes start out
the same way as aerobic respiration, but they stop partway through the pathway
because the oxygen is not available for it to finish the aerobic respiration process, or
they join with another molecule that is not oxygen as the final electron acceptor.
Fermentation makes many fewer ATP and also releases byproducts of either lactic
acid or alcohol, in most cases. Anaerobic processes can happen in the mitochondria
or in the cytoplasm of the cell. (Scoville, 2019)
Lactic acid fermentation is the type of anaerobic process humans undergo if
there is a shortage of oxygen. For example, long distance runners experience a
buildup of lactic acid in their muscles because they are not taking in enough oxygen
to keep up with the demand of energy needed for the exercise. The lactic acid can
even cause cramping and soreness in the muscles as time goes on. Alcoholic
fermentation does not happen in humans. Yeast is a good example of an organism
that undergoes alcoholic fermentation. The same process that goes on in the
mitochondria during lactic acid fermentation also happens in alcoholic fermentation.
The only difference is that the byproduct of alcoholic fermentation is ethyl alcohol.
Alcoholic fermentation is important for the beer industry. Beer makers add yeast
which will undergo alcoholic fermentation to add alcohol to the brew. Wine
fermentation is also similar and provides the alcohol for the wine. Aerobic respiration
is more efficient at making ATP than anaerobic processes like fermentation. Without
oxygen, the Krebs Cycle and the Electron Transport Chain in cellular respiration get
backed up and will not work any longer. This forces the cell to undergo the much
less efficient fermentation. While aerobic respiration can produce up to 36 ATP, the
different types of fermentation can only have a net gain of 2 ATP. (Scoville, 2019)

The harvesting of energy from glucose by cellular respiration is a cumulative

function of three metabolic stages.
1. Glycolysis
2. Pyruvate oxidation and the citric acid cycle/ Krebs cycle
3. Oxidative phosphorylation: Electron transport and chemiosmosis
Biochemists usually reserve the term cellular respiration for stages 2 and 3
together. In this module as adopted from Campbell Biology 10th edition, included
glycolysis as a part of cellular respiration because most respiring cells deriving
energy from glucose use glycolysis to produce the starting material for the citric acid
cycle.
An overview of cellular respiration. During glycolysis, each glucose molecule is broken
down into two molecules of the compound pyruvate. In eukaryotic cells, as shown here,
the pyruvate enters the mitochondrion. There it is oxidized to acetyl CoA, which is further
oxidized to CO2 in the citric acid cycle. NADH and a similar electron carrier, a coenzyme
called FADH2, transfer electrons derived from glucose to electron transport chains, which
are built into the inner mitochondrial membrane. (In prokaryotes, the electron transport
chains are located in the plasma membrane.) During oxidative phosphorylation, electron
transport chains convert the chemical energy to a form used for ATP synthesis in the
process called chemiosmosis.
As diagrammed in Figure 1, glycolysis and pyruvate oxidation followed by the citric
acid cycle are the catabolic pathways that break down glucose and other organic fuels.
Glycolysis, which occurs in the cytosol, begins the degradation process by breaking glucose
into two molecules of a compound called pyruvate. In eukaryotes, pyruvate enters the
mitochondrion and is oxidized to a compound called acetyl CoA, which enters the citric acid
cycle. There, the breakdown of glucose to carbon dioxide is completed. (In prokaryotes,
these processes take place in the cytosol.) Thus, the carbon dioxide produced by respiration
represents fragments of oxidized organic molecules. Some of the steps of glycolysis and the
citric acid cycle are redox reactions in which dehydrogenases transfer electrons from
substrates to NAD+, forming NADH. In the third stage of respiration, the electron transport
chain accepts electrons (most often via NADH) from the breakdown products of the first two
stages and passes these electrons from one molecule to another. The energy released at
each step of the chain is stored in a form the mitochondrion (or prokaryotic cell) can use to
make ATP from ADP. This mode of ATP synthesis is called oxidative phosphorylation
because it is powered by the redox reactions of the electron transport chain. In eukaryotic
cells, the inner membrane of the mitochondrion is the site of electron transport and
chemiosmosis, the processes that together constitute oxidative phosphorylation. (In
prokaryotes, these processes take place in the plasma membrane.) Oxidative
phosphorylation accounts for almost 90% of the ATP generated by respiration. A smaller
amount of ATP is formed directly in a few reactions of glycolysis and the citric acid cycle by a
mechanism called substrate-level phosphorylation (Figure 9.7). This mode of ATP synthesis
occurs when an enzyme transfers a phosphate group from a substrate molecule to ADP,
rather than adding an inorganic phosphate to ADP as in oxidative phosphorylation.
“Substrate molecule” here refers to an organic molecule generated as an intermediate during
the catabolism of glucose. You will see examples of substrate-level phosphorylation later in
the chapter, in both glycolysis and the citric acid cycle. When you withdraw a relatively large
sum of money from an ATM machine, it is not delivered to you in a single bill of larger
denomination. Instead, a number of smaller denomination bills are dispensed that you can
spend more easily. This is analogous to ATP production during cellular respiration. For each
molecule of glucose degraded to carbon dioxide and water by respiration, the cell makes up
to about 32 molecules of ATP, each with 7.3 kcal/mol of free energy. Respiration cashes in
the large denomination of energy banked in a single molecule of glucose (686 kcal/mol) for
the small change of many molecules of ATP, which is more practical for the cell to spend on
its work.