Aerobic Respiration

• • If respiration is aerobic, pyruvate enters the mitochondrial matrix by active transport.
• The final stage of aerobic respiration is oxidative phosphorylation
• In oxidative phosphorylation:

  • Reduced NAD and FAD donate electrons to the electron transfer chain in the inner mitochondrial membrane
  • Energy is released as electrons pass down the chain, creating a proton gradient across the inner mitochondrial membrane into the inter-membranal space
  • The proton gradient is used to synthesize ATP by oxidative phosphorylation, catalyzed by ATP synthase (chemiosmotic theory)
• Oxygen combines with the protons that have diffused through the ATP synthase channel and the electrons passed along the electron transfer chain, acting as the final electron acceptor to maintain the proton gradient for the electron transfer chain to continue
• Chemical equation for the combination of oxygen with protons and electrons:

  1⁄2 O2 + 2e- + 2H+ → H2O
• • Aerobic respiration produces 32 ATP. 30 more than anaerobic respiration.
• Link Reaction:

  A) Mitochondrial Matrix

  B) No ATP produced

  
• Krebs cycle:

  A) Form a-ketoglutarate (5C)

  B) FADH and NADH donate electrons and H+

  
• Oxidative Phosphorylation:

  
• • The first stage of respiration is glycolysis which occurs in the cytoplasm of cells.

  ◦ There is a net yield of 2 pyruvate, 2 reduced NAD and 2 ATP

  molecules