Enzymes in respiration Flashcards
What is respiration?
Respiration is the process of releasing energy from the breakdown of glucose which goes in every cell.
What does aerobic respiration need to take place?
Oxygen.
True or false? Aerobic respiration only happens sometimes.
False. Aerobic respiration takes place all the time in plants and animals.
Which part of the cell does it usually take place in?
The mitochondria.
What is the word equation for respiration?
Give the four examples of what the energy released by aerobic respiration is used for.
- To build up larger molecules from smaller ones
- In animals, to allow the muscles to contract (allowing them to move about)
- In mamals and birds, to keep their body temperature steady
- In plants to build sugars, nitrates and other nutrients into amino acids, which are then built up into proteins
Give two changes to the body that occur during exercise.
- There is an increse to your breathing rate to meet the demand for extra oxygen
- There is an increse in the speed at which your heart pumps
Describe why the body needs to change its breathing rate and the speed which the heart pumps during exercise.
Muscles use oxygen to release energy from glucose. During physical activity, the muscles are more active and so require more glucose and oxygen to be supplied to the muscle cells and more carbon dioxide to be removed. For this to happen the blood needs to flow at a faster rate which is why breathing rate increases and heart rate also increases.
What is some glucose from food stored as?
Glycogen
What happens to stored glycogen during exercise?
Glycogen ‘s mainly stored in the liver but each muscle also has its own store. During vigorous exercise muscles use glucose rapidly, so some of the stored glycogen is converted back to glucose to provide more energy.
When does anaerobic respiration take place? Why?
When you do vigorous exercise and your body can’t supply enough oxygen to your muscles, they start doing anaerobic respiration.
What is the equation for anaerobic respiration?
glucose –> energy + lactic acid
Why is the production of lactic acid a bad thing?
The production of lactic acid is a bad thing because the lactic acid builds up in the muscles causing them to fatigue and they stop contracting efficiently. It also means that not as much energy is being released.
What is the ‘oxygen debt’? What does it involve?
This is when you need to add extra oxygen in to your blood after you stop exercising in order to ‘repay’ the oxygen that you couldn’t get whilst exercising. In order to do this, you have to keep breathing heavily after you stop to get more oxgen in to the blood. Blood flows through the muscles to remove the lactic acid by oxidising it to harmless carbon dioxide and water.
