Anaerobic Respiration Flashcards
Differences between anaerobic and aerobic respiration
Anaerobic is on the absence of oxygen and is much less efficient at producing ATP than aerobic and doesn’t involve the link reaction, Krebs cycle or oxidative phosphorylation
What is an obligate anaerobe
Cannot survive in the presence of oxygen, almost all prokaryotes
What is a facultative anaerobe
Synthesises ATP by aerobic if oxygen present but can switch to anaerobic in absence of oxygen
What is an obligate aerobe
Organism that needs oxygen to survive and grow
What is fermentation
Form of anaerobic respiration where complex organic compounds broken down into simpler organic ones but not fully broken down so less ATP produced
Why does fermentation produce less ATP than aerobic
As oxygen cannot be the final electron acceptor so no flow of electrons which stops chemiosmosis, reduced NAD and FAD no longer oxidised and regenerated for Krebs cycle causing it to also stop so produces less ATP
Process of lactate fermentation in mammals
Glucose converted to pyruvate via glycolysis
-reduced NAD (from glycolysis) transfers hydrogen to pyruvate (catalysed by enzyme lactase dehydrogenase) to form lactate and NAD
-NAD can then be reused in glycolysis to keep it going so a small amount of ATP can still be produced
How is lactate broken down two ways
-Broken down in liver requiring oxygen and converted back into glucose and oxygen
-cells can convert the lactate back to pyruvate which re enters aerobic respiration at the Krebs cycle
What is oxygen debt
The volume of oxygen needed to break down the lactic acid from anaerobic respiration, which is why br and hr remain high after exercise to get the oxygen to the liver
Why can humans not do anaerobic respiration indefinitely
-not enough ATP produced to sustain vital processes for long period of time
-accumulation of lactic acid decreases pH which causes denaturing of proteins including respiratory enzymes
