Question

Learning Activity 10-1 CELLULAR RESPIRATION

What is the purpose of cellular respiration?	What are the overall reactants and what are the products of cellular respiration?
What makes ATP so special?	Why are the mitochondria so important?

Answer 1

Purpose of cellular respiration

Cellular respiration means a set metabolic reactions that take place in the cells of organisms to convert chemical energy from oxygen molecul or nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products.The reactions involved in respiration are catabolic reactions, which break large molecules into smaller ones, releasing energy because weak high-energy bonds, in particular in molecular oxygen,are replaced by stronger bonds in the products. Respiration is one of the key ways a cell releases chemical energy to fuel cellular activity. The overall reaction occurs in a series of biochemical steps, some of which are redox reactions. Although cellular respiration is technically a combustion reaction, it clearly does not resemble one when it occurs in a living cell because of the slow, controlled release of energy from the series of reactions.

Glucose and oxygen are the reactants of cellular respiration and the end products are carbon dioxide and water with the liberation of energy in form of ATP

The major portion of (ATP) synthesized during glucose metabolism is produced in the mitochondria through oxidative phosphorylation. This is a complex reaction powered by the proton gradient across the mitochondrial inner membrane, which is generated by mitochondrial respirationMithochondria is the energy factory of The cell

Energyy currency for the work that animals must do is the energy-rich molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The ATP is produced in the mitochondria using energy stored in food.

The synthesis of ATP occurs in the inner mitochondrial membrane in mitochondria. The enzyme required for the synthesis of ATP is ATP synthase which is located in the inner mitochondrial membrane. There is transfer of protons from the matrix to the inner mitochondrial membrane. This creates a concentration gradient of protons. ATP synthase uses this concentration gradient to synthesize the energy rich molecule ATP.