Biology Lab: Fermentation

and Respiration
Background:

Cell respiration is the means of which cells transferring energy stored in food to create ATP. The
energy stored in the ATP molecule is now instantly available for every cellular activity like
contracting the muscle, moving cilia or making protein. The equation for aerobic respiration of
one glucose is:

C6H12O6+ 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + energy

Free energy = ΔG = -686 kcal/mole

There are 2 different types of cellular respiration aerobic ( respiration that requires oxygen) and
anaerobic ( respiration that doesn’t require oxygen), if there is oxygen then glycolysis will lead to
the Krebs cycle, the ETC and oxidative phosphorylation. If there is no oxygen then glycolysis
will lead to either alcoholic fermentation or lactic acid fermentation.

In glycolysis, a molecule of glucose is broken down to 2 pyruvates and one gains a net worth of
4 ATP you would also get 2 NADH. To start the breaking down of the glucose or the energy of
activation is 2 ATP. the formal for it is:

2 ATP + 1 Glucose + 2 NAD+ → 2 Pyruvate + 4 ATP + 2 NADH

Because in this experiment the yeast doesn't have access to oxygen it uses alcohol
fermentation. This fermentation converts the pyruvates from glycolysis into ethyl alcohol and
carbon dioxide and it oxidizes NADH back to NAD+.

Purpose of the experiment:

To measure and/or observe the effects of the environment changes ( temperature, acidity or
other factors) on the rate of respiration in a subject organism by measuring how much CO2
By measuring the change in the solute's height

Hypothesis:
Because of the sugar and the water active fermentation in the yeast CO2
Is released so the height of the water will change.
Null hypothesis:
There will be no change in its height because of the fermentation.

Data collection:
 Time → 0 5 10 15 20

Tubes
↓

1 (3mL corn 10cm 10cm 11cm 11cm 11cm

syrup)

2 (3mL corn 14.5cm 14.5cm 14.5cm 14.5cm 14.5cm

syrup +
1 mL yeast
suspension)

3 (3mL corn 12.6cm 13cm 13cm 13cm 13cm

syrup +
3 mL yeast
suspension)
Conclusion:

Summary of results:
The result shows the measurement was consistent
Errors identified:
Some of the errors were that we didn't measure with the ruler, and we can infer this from the
control group. The height shouldn’t have changed because there was no yeast for fermentation
to happen and even if fermentation did happen the water levels would have gone down. Another
mistake that happened it that we didn't set it up correctly. This can be inferred because of the
results. We added sugar to yeast in its optimal temperature. The yeast couldn’t have used
aerobic respiration because it didn’t have access to oxygen and because it isn't an animal it
uses alcohol fermentation in which it releases alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste products.
Because of this, the carbon dioxide would have pushed down the water in the test tube instead
of it staying in relative height. This may have happened because the stopper wasn’t put right or
the yeast wasn’t active.