Aerobic Respiration

Quick summary - Respiration

Respiration is the process by which organisms extract the energy stored in complex molecules and use it to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

Aerobic respiration – Oxygen + Glucose ---> Water +  Carbon dioxide  + ATP        

Anaerobic respiration – Glucose ---> Ethanol  + Carbon dioxide + ATP

Early stages of respiration occur in the cytoplasm, later stages are restricted to the mitochondria.

      Hydrolysis – Losing a phosphate

       Phosphorylation – Adding a phosphate back on

Stages of aerobic respiration

There are 4 stages of aerobic respiration:

1)      Glycolysis

The splitting of the 6-C glucose molecule into two 3-C pyruvate molecules. It occurs in the cytoplasm of all living cells.

-Glucose is activated by phosphorylation, the phosphate molecules come from the hydrolysis of two ATP molecules to ADP.

-Each glucose molecule is split into two 3-C molecules known as triose phosphate

-Hydrogen is removed from each of the triose phosphate molecules and transferred to a hydrogen-carrier molecule known as NAD.

-Enzyme controlled reactions convert each triose phosphate into pyruvate.

For each molecule of glucose, glycolysis produces:

2 x ATP , 2 x Pyruvate , 2 x NADH

2)      Link Reaction

This is the conversion of the 3-C pyruvate…