BASIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

School Year 2020 – 2021

2nd QUARTER

Subject: GENERAL BIOLOGY 1 Module Number: 2

Topic: Respiration Prepare Module Durations: 1 Week

Learning Competencies
1. Describe the patterns of electron flow through light reaction events (STEM_BIO11/12-IIa-
j-4)
2. Describe the significant events of the Calvin cycle (STEM_BIO11/12-IIa-j-5)

Learning Objectives
1. Explain the major features and sequence the chemical events of cellular respiration
2. Enumerate the significant events of the Calvin cycle.

Learning Materials

 Module
 Laptop/ PC with internet connection
 Pen
 And a lot of patience and understanding 

Discussion

 Cellular Respiration

Cellular respiration is the process by which living cells break down glucose molecules
and release energy. The process is similar to burning, although it doesn’t produce light or
intense heat as a campfire does. This is because cellular respiration releases the energy in
glucose slowly, in many small steps. It uses the energy that is released to form molecules of

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 ATP, the energy-carrying molecules that cells use to power biochemical processes. Cellular
respiration involves many chemical reactions.

Cellular respiration occurs in the cells of all living things, both autotrophs and heterotrophs. All of them
burn glucose to form ATP. The reactions of cellular respiration can be grouped into three stages: glycolysis,
the Krebs cycle (also called the citric acid cycle), and electron transport.

The products of photosynthesis are used in cellular respiration. The term cellular respiration
pertains to the metabolic processes that occur in the cells converting energy from nutrients into ATP. It is
a biochemical pathway involving catabolic reactions, which break large molecules into smaller ones,
releasing energy in the process, as weak so called "high-energy" bonds are replaced by stronger bonds in
the products. All living cells must carry out cellular respiration. It is one of the primary ways a cell releases
energy to fuel cellular activities. It is considered as an exothermic reaction that releases heat. It can be
aerobic or anaerobic. Aerobic respiration requires oxygen in order to produce ATP. It is a characteristic
of eukaryotic cells when they have enough oxygen and most of it occurs in the mitochondria. Anaerobic
respiration, on the other hand, is the release of a relatively small amount of energy in cells by the breakdown
of food substances in the absence of oxygen.

Three Phases of Aerobic Respiration

 Glycolysis

Glycolysis is the first stage of cellular respiration. It is derived from the Greek word "glyco"
meaning sweet and "lysis" meaning to split apart. Literally, it means to break down something sweet. It is
a series of reactions that extract energy from glucose (six carbon sugar) by splitting it into two molecules
of pyruvate (three - carbon molecule) with the production of two molecules of ATP. In this process, some
of the electrons from glucose are transferred to an electron carrier molecule known as NADH. It does not
need the presence of oxygen and proceeds the same way under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. After
glycolysis, the ATP molecules are converted to energy while the pyruvate molecules and the NADH enter
the mitochondria.

 Krebs Cycle

The pyruvate molecules produced by glycolysis are transformed into a molecule called coenzyme
A to form acetyl coenzyme A or simply known as acetyl COA, which enters the Krebs Cycle. This cycle
was named after its discoverer, Hans Adolf Krebs, a German-born British physician and biochemist. Krebs

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cycle is a set of reactions wherein the acetyl group of acetyl CoA combines with a four-carbon molecule
known as oxaloacetate. The resulting six - carbon molecule is called citrate. This is the reason why this
cycle is also called citric acid cycle. In the course of the cycle, citrate is rearranged and oxidized. Along
the process, CO, ATP, NADH, and FADH, are also formed. Since there are two molecules of acetyl co -
A from one glucose molecules, there are two rounds of Krebs Cycle. Hence, the end products are four ATP
molecules, 10 NADH molecules, and two FADH, molecules. The cell ejects Co, as waste.

 Electron Transport and Chemiosmosis

In this phase, the high-energy electrons within NADH and FADH, will be passed to a set of
membrane-bound enzymes in the mitochondrion, collectively known as the electron transport chain. The
electron transport chain is a series of electron carriers existing in an oxidized form. Electrons pass across
carrier molecules in a series of exergonic redox reactions. It comprises an enzymatic series of electron
donors and acceptors. Each electron donor will pass electrons to a more electronegative acceptor, which in
turn donates these electrons to another acceptor. Meaning, the first protein in the chain accepts electrons
released by NADH and FADH, then pass it on to the next protein in the chain and to the next, and so on.
As these happen, their energy is used to pump H + ions across the inner membrane, establishing a protein
gradient. The final electron acceptor is oxygen, the most electronegative acceptor in the chain, which then
forms a water molecule with free H + ions. As the hydrogen ions move from high concentration to low
concentration through the ATP synthase complex in the mitochondrion, the enzyme ATP synthase adds
phosphate to adenosine dinucleotide phosphate (ADP +) to yield ATP. Since ADP is phosphorylated to
ATP using the energy of hydrogen oxidation, the entire process is known as oxidative phosphorylation.

In 1961, Peter D. Mitchell, a British biochemist proposed the chemiosmotic hypothesis. The theory
suggests essentially that the energy is first used to generate a gradient of H ", and then flows down their
electrochemical gradient through ATP synthase chanels by using the energy of NADH and FADH, formed
from the breaking down of energy-rich molecules such as glucose.

 The Calvin Cycle

In plants, carbon dioxide (CO2) enters the leaves through stomata, where it diffuses over short
distances through intercellular spaces until it reaches the mesophyll cells. Once in the mesophyll cells, CO2
diffuses into the stroma of the chloroplast, the site of light-independent reactions of photosynthesis. These
reactions actually have several names associated with them. Other names for light-independent reactions
include the Calvin cycle, the Calvin-Benson cycle, and dark reactions. The most outdated name is dark

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reactions, which can be misleading because it implies incorrectly that the reaction only occurs at night or
is independent of light, which is why most scientists and instructors no longer use it.

The light-independent reactions of the Calvin cycle can be organized into three basic stages: fixation,
reduction, and regeneration.

Stage 1: Fixation

In the stroma, in addition to CO2,two other components are present to initiate the light-independent
reactions: an enzyme called ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) and three molecules of ribulose
bisphosphate (RuBP). RuBP has five atoms of carbon, flanked by two phosphates. RuBisCO catalyzes a
reaction between CO2 and RuBP. For each CO2 molecule that reacts with one RuBP, two molecules of 3-
phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA) form. 3-PGA has three carbons and one phosphate. Each turn of the cycle
involves only one RuBP and one carbon dioxide and forms two molecules of 3-PGA. The number of carbon
atoms remains the same, as the atoms move to form new bonds during the reactions (3 atoms from 3CO2
+ 15 atoms from 3RuBP = 18 atoms in 3 atoms of 3-PGA). This process is called carbon fixation because
CO2 is “fixed” from an inorganic form into organic molecules.

Stage 2: Reduction

ATP and NADPH are used to convert the six molecules of 3-PGA into six molecules of a chemical called
glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (G3P). This is a reduction reaction because it involves the gain of electrons by
3-PGA. Recall that a reduction is the gain of an electron by an atom or molecule. Six molecules of both
ATP and NADPH are used. For ATP, energy is released with the loss of the terminal phosphate atom,
converting it to ADP; for NADPH, both energy and a hydrogen atom are lost, converting it into NADP+.
Both of these molecules return to the nearby light-dependent reactions to be reused and reenergized.

Stage 3: Regeneration

At this point, only one of the G3P molecules leaves the Calvin cycle and is sent to the cytoplasm to
contribute to the formation of other compounds needed by the plant. Because the G3P exported from the
chloroplast has three carbon atoms, it takes three “turns” of the Calvin cycle to fix enough net carbon to
export one G3P. But each turn makes two G3Ps, thus three turns make six G3Ps. One is exported while the
remaining five G3P molecules remain in the cycle and are used to regenerate RuBP, which enables the
system to prepare for more CO2 to be fixed. Three more molecules of ATP are used in these regeneration
reactions.

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References
 General Biology 1 for Senior High, Faltado,Paz de Leon, Lopez, Lorimar Publishing,
Inc. 2017.
 General Biology 1, Ayuste, Oliva, Diwa Leaning Systems Inc. 2017.
 https://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/make-your-own/crossword/crossword.php
 https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Human_Biology/Book%3A_Human_Biology_(Waki
m_and_Grewal)/05%3A_Cells/5.09%3A_Cellular_Respiration#:~:text=Cellular%20res
piration%20is%20the%20aerobic,form%20carbon%20dioxide%20and%20water.
 https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Book%3A_Microbiology_(Boundless
)/5%3A_Microbial_Metabolism/5.12%3A_Biosynthesis/5.12C%3A_The_Calvin_Cycle

Prepared and Reviewed by:

CARMELA M. DESPUES
General Biology 1 Teacher
Subject Coordinator

Checked by: Recommended by:

JENNY LIZ J. ANYAYAHAN DR. FEDELIZA A. NAMBATAC

Academic Coordinator Principal, Basic Education

Approved by:

BRO. HUBERTUS GURU, SVD

Basic Education Director

Property of Divine Word College of Calapan. DO NOT reproduce nor disseminate without the owner’s consent.