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During aerobic respiration, ATP is generated from oxygen and glucose. Glucose is known as a respiratory substrate, and is broken down by cells to produce energy in the form of ATP.
The key part of aerobic respiration is that it requires oxygen to occur. It is different from anaerobic respiration, which does not require oxygen to occur and produces far less ATP.
In animal cells, three of the four stages of aerobic respiration take place in the mitochondria. Glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm, which is the liquid that surrounds the cell’s organelles. The link reaction, the Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation all take place within the mitochondria.
Figure 1. Mitochondria struture.
As displayed in Fugire 1, the mitochondria’s structural features help to explain its role in aerobic respiration. The mitochondria has an inner membrane and an outer membrane. This double membrane structure creates five distinct components within the mitochondria, and each of these aids aerobic respiration in some way. We will outline the main adaptations of the mitochondria below:
There are four stages of aerobic respiration.
Glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm, and involves the splitting of a single, 6-carbon glucose molecule into two 3-carbon pyruvate molecules. There are multiple, smaller, enzyme-controlled reactions during glycolysis, which occur in four stages:
The overall equation for glycolysis is:
During the link reaction, the 3-carbon pyruvate molecules produced during glycolysis undergo a series of different reactions after being actively transported into the mitochondrial matrix. The following reactions are:
Overall, the equation for this is:
The Krebs cycle is the most complex of the four reactions. Named after the British biochemist Hans Krebs, it features a sequence of redox reactions that occur in the mitochondrial matrix. The reactions can be summarised in three steps:
These reactions also result in the production of ATP, reduced NAD, and FAD as by-products.
This is the final stage of aerobic respiration. The hydrogen atoms released during the Krebs cycle, along with the electrons they possess, are carried by reduced NAD and FAD (cofactors involved in cellular respiration) into an electron transfer chain. The following stages occur:
The overall equation for aerobic respiration is the following:
Aerobic respiration refers to the metabolic process in which glucose and oxygen are used to form ATP. Carbon dioxide and water are formed as a byproduct.
Aerobic respiration occurs in two parts of the cell. The first stage, glycolysis, occurs in the cytoplasm. The rest of the process occurs in the mitochondria.
The main steps of aerobic respiration are as follows:
Glucose + Oxygen ----> Water + Carbon dioxide
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