CELLULAR

RESPIRATION
• Respiration is one of the important chemical processes, which is carried out
by all living organisms including plants animals and humans in order to
release energy required for life processes.
Respiration is of two types, aerobic respiration, and anaerobic respiration.
• Aerobic Respiration: It is the process of cellular respiration that takes place
in the presence of oxygen gas to produce energy from food. This type of
respiration is common in most of the plants and animals, birds, humans, and
other mammals. In this process, water and carbon dioxide are produced as
end products.
• Anaerobic Respiration: It is a process which takes place in the absence of
oxygen gas. In this process, the energy is obtained by the breakdown of
glucose in the absence of oxygen. One of the best examples of anaerobic
respiration is the process of fermentation in yeast.
What is Aerobic Respiration?
• Aerobic respiration is a biological process in which food glucose is
converted into energy in the presence of oxygen. The chemical
equation of aerobic respiration is as given below-

Glucose (C6H12O6)  + Oxygen 6(O2) → Carbon-dioxide 6(CO2)  +  Water 6 (H2O) + Energy (ATP)

• According to the above-given chemical equation, energy is
released by splitting the glucose molecules with the help of
oxygen gas. At the end of the chemical reaction, energy,
water molecules, and carbon dioxide gas are released as the
by-products or end products of the reactions.
• The 2900 kJ of energy is released during the process of
breaking the glucose molecule and in turn, this energy is
used to produce ATP – Adenosine Triphosphate molecules
which are used by the system for various purposes.
• Aerobic respiration process takes place in all multicellular
organisms including animals, plants and other living
organisms.
Steps of Aerobic Respiration
• The complete process of aerobic respiration occurs in four different 
stages:
Glycolysis
• It is the primary step of aerobic respiration is glycolysis and takes
place within the cytosol of the cell. During the glycolysis process,
the glucose molecules are splitting and separated into two ATP and
two NADH molecules, which are later used in the process of aerobic
respiration.
Formation of Acetyl Coenzyme A
• The second step in aerobic respiration is the formation of acetyl
coenzyme A. In this process, pyruvate is oxidized in the mitochondria
and  2-carbon acetyl group is produced. The newly produced 2-carbon
acetyl group binds with coenzyme A, producing acetyl coenzyme A.
 Citric Acid Cycle
• The third step in aerobic respiration is the citric acid cycle, which is
also called the Krebs cycle. In this stage of Aerobic respiration, the
oxaloacetate combines with the acetyl-coenzyme A and produces
citric acid. The citric acid cycle undergoes a series of reactions and
produces 2 molecules of carbon dioxide, 1 molecule of ATP, and
reduced forms of NADH and FADH.
Electron Transport Chain
• This is the last step in aerobic respiration. In this phase, the large
amounts of ATP molecules are produced by transferring the
electrons from NADH and FADH. A single molecule of glucose
creates a total of 34 ATP molecules.