Plants produce carbohydrates, like glucose, through photsynthesis.
The bonds in glucose can be broken, to make ATP, which is the usable energy molecule of the cell.
So where does this happen?
Cellular respiration occurs in the mitochondria.
The mitochondria take in oxygen and glucose.
And produce water and carbon dioxide and lots of ATP
Here's the equation for photosynthesis:
Carbon dioxide and water with energy from light
make glucose and oxygen.
Those products of photosynthesis are the reactants of respiration.
And the products of respiration are the reactants of photosynthesis.
They're opposite. They cycle continuously.
The purpose of photosynthesis and cellular respiration
Is to take the energy from the Sun
and turn it into ATP, which is energy that the cells that actually use.
Notice that oxygen is one of the reactants of cellular respiration.
Our bodies, and many other organisms
have a way to deal with low or no oxygen environments.
When oxygen is present, cells can perform
aerobic respiration. Aerobic means requiring oxygen.
so this is your typical respiration cycle,
and it makes a lot of ATP
If you put the prefix "a"or "an"
in front of a word, it means "not"
so anaerobic respiration means "not requiring oxygen."
Anaerobic respiration is NOT efficient
but it is a way to make ATP
in a pinch. But we'll talk more about how that works next time.
