aerobic respiration

Examples of aerobic respiration in the following topics:

• The Energy Cycle

  • Finally, in the process of breaking down food, called cellular respiration, heterotrophs release needed energy and produce "waste" in the form of CO2 gas.
  • Photosynthesis absorbs light energy to build carbohydrates in chloroplasts, and aerobic cellular respiration releases energy by using oxygen to metabolize carbohydrates in the cytoplasm and mitochondria.
  • Aerobic respiration consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide.
  • These two powerhouse processes, photosynthesis and cellular respiration, function in biological, cyclical harmony to allow organisms to access life-sustaining energy that originates millions of miles away in the sun.
  • Aerobic respiration consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide.

• Transforming Chemical Energy

  • Cellular respiration is the process of transforming chemical energy into forms usable by the cell or organism.
  • When oxygen is used to help drive the oxidation of nutrients the process is called aerobic respiration.
  • Aerobic respiration is common among the eukaryotes, including humans, and takes place mostly within the mitochondria.
  • Respiration occurs within the cytoplasm of prokaryotes.
  • The energy released during cellular respiration is then used in other biological processes.

• Estuaries: Where the Ocean Meets Fresh Water

  • When these animals are exposed to low salinity, they stop feeding, close their shells, and switch from aerobic respiration (in which they use gills) to anaerobic respiration (a process that does not require oxygen).
  • When high tide returns to the estuary, the salinity and oxygen content of the water increases, causing these animals to open their shells, begin feeding, and to return to aerobic respiration.

• Anaerobic Cellular Respiration

  • However, many organisms have developed strategies to carry out metabolism without oxygen, or can switch from aerobic to anaerobic cell respiration when oxygen is scarce.
  • Certain prokaryotes, including some species of bacteria and archaea, use anaerobic respiration.
  • Eukaryotes can also undergo anaerobic respiration.
  • This type of fermentation is used routinely in mammalian red blood cells and in skeletal muscle that has an insufficient oxygen supply to allow aerobic respiration to continue (that is, in muscles used to the point of fatigue).
  • This means that they can switch between aerobic respiration and fermentation, depending on the availability of oxygen.

• Outcomes of Glycolysis

  • Mature mammalian red blood cells do not have mitochondria and are not capable of aerobic respiration, the process in which organisms convert energy in the presence of oxygen.
  • Glycolysis, or the aerobic catabolic breakdown of glucose, produces energy in the form of ATP, NADH, and pyruvate, which itself enters the citric acid cycle to produce more energy.

• The Evolution of Mitochondria

  • As the amount of oxygen increased in the atmosphere billions of years ago and as successful aerobic prokaryotes evolved, evidence suggests that an ancestral cell with some membrane compartmentalization engulfed a free-living aerobic prokaryote, specifically an alpha-proteobacterium, thereby giving the host cell the ability to use oxygen to release energy stored in nutrients.
  • The matrix and inner membrane are rich with enzymes necessary for aerobic respiration.
  • Mitochondria that carry out aerobic respiration have their own genomes, with genes similar to those in alpha-proteobacteria.

• Mitochondria

  • The matrix and inner membrane are rich with the enzymes necessary for aerobic respiration.
  • Cellular respiration is the process of making ATP using the chemical energy found in glucose and other nutrients.
  • In addition to the aerobic generation of ATP, mitochondria have several other metabolic functions.

• The Carbon Cycle

  • These chemical bonds store this energy for later use in the process of respiration.
  • Heterotrophs acquire the high-energy carbon compounds from the autotrophs by consuming them and breaking them down by respiration to obtain cellular energy, such as ATP.
  • The most efficient type of respiration, aerobic respiration, requires oxygen obtained from the atmosphere or dissolved in water.
  • The large numbers of land animals raised to feed the earth's growing population results in increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere due to farming practices, respiration, and methane production.
  • Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide gas to organic carbon, while respiration cycles the organic carbon back into carbon dioxide gas.

• Early Eukaryotes

  • The LCA was aerobic because it had mitochondria that were the result of an aerobic alpha-proteobacterium that lived inside a host cell.
  • Without oxygen, aerobic respiration would not be expected; living things would have relied on fermentation instead.

• The Respiratory System and Direct Diffusion

  • All aerobic organisms require oxygen to carry out their metabolic functions.
  • The environment in which the animal lives greatly determines how an animal respires.
  • This flatworm's process of respiration works by diffusion across the outer membrane.