Aerobic Cellular Respiration

Aerobic Cellular Respiration

Humans, and all animals, use adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as the main energy source in cells. The authors of Biological Science 5th edition said that “In general, a cell contains only enough ATP [adenosine triphosphate] to last from 30 seconds to a few minutes”. It is that way “Because it has such high potential energy, ATP is unstable and is not stored”. They also state that “In an average second, a typical cell in your body uses an average of 10 million ATP molecules and synthesizes [makes] just as many”. In the human body trillions of cells exist. The average human body uses and makes 10,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of ATP every second. In one minute the human body uses 600,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of ATP. In one day the human body uses 864,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of ATP. In one year, this is equivalent to 365.25 days; the average human body uses and makes a huge amount, 315,576,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of ATP. For this example one mile is equal to one molecule of ATP. Light travels at approximately 186,000 mi/sec. It would take light roughly 53,763,440,860 years to travel that many miles. The sheer amount of ATP made in the cells of people is amazing! This essay will explain somewhat the main way of making all of those ATP molecules in aerobic organisms, aerobic cellular respiration. There are four steps that take place in aerobic cellular respiration, and they are: 1.Glycolysis; 2. Pyruvate Processing; 3. Citric Acid Cycle; 4. Electron Transport and Oxidative Phosphorylation (Allison, L. A. , Black, M. , Podgoroski, G. , Quillin, K. , Monroe, J. , Taylor E. 2014).

1. Glycolysis is a multi-step process. The authors of Biological Science 5th edition stated ...

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...s in the cells within humans (multicellular organisms) switching from aerobic respiration to anaerobic respiration. This causes less energy to be produced per molecule of glucose (Baskin, S. I. et al. 2014), (“Environmental”. N.D.) (Allison, L. A. et al. 2014). The less produced energy causes cells to die from lack of energy, and once enough cells die, the multicellular organisms (humans) die.

References

Baskin, S. I. , Kelly, J. B. , Maliner, B. I. , Rockwood, G. A. , Zoltani C. K. (2013). “Chapter 11

Cyanide Poisoning”. Retrieved from https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=18123

“Environmental & Health Effects”. (N.D.). Retrieved from

http://www.cyanidecode.org/cyanide-facts/environmental-health-effects

Allison, L. A. , Black, M. , Podgoroski, G. , Quillin, K. , Monroe, J. , Taylor E. (2014).

Biological Science, Fifth Edition. Glenview, IL. Pearson