FJ Revilla
UT#2
1. The term cellular respiration refers to the biochemical pathway by which cells release
energy from the chemical bonds of food molecules and provide that energy for the
essential processes of life. All living cells must carry out cellular respiration. It can be
aerobic respiration in the presence of oxygen or anaerobic respiration. Prokaryotic cells
carry out cellular respiration within the cytoplasm or on the inner surfaces of the cells.
More emphasis here will be placed on eukaryotic cells where the mitochondria are the
site of most of the reactions. The energy currency of these cells is ATP, and one way to
view the outcome of cellular respiration is as a production process for ATP.
Cellular respiration produces CO2 as a metabolic waste. This CO2 binds with water to
form carbonic acid, helping to maintain the blood's pH. Since too much CO2 would
lower the blood's pH too much, the removal of the excess CO2 must be accomplished
on an ongoing basis.
2. Cellular Respiration: breaking down sugar in the presence of oxygen (aerobic).
Photosynthesis is the process by which CO2 and H2O are used to make sugars and
starches.
During Cellular Respiration, sugar is broken down to CO2 and H2O, and in the process,
ATP is made that can then be used for cellular work.
C6H12O6 + 6O2 -------------------> 6CO2 + 6H2O + ~38 ATP
3. Is there a chance that it can cure mitochondrial diseases ?
4. Climate Effects on Human Evolution: Paleoanthropologists – scientists who study
human evolution – have proposed a variety of ideas about how environmental
conditions may have stimulated important developments in human origins. Diverse
species have emerged over the course of human evolution, and a suite of adaptations
have accumulated over time, including upright walking, the capacity to make tools,
enlargement of the brain, prolonged maturation, the emergence of complex mental and
social behavior, and dependence on technology to alter the surroundings.
The period of human evolution has coincided with environmental change, including
cooling, drying, and wider climate fluctuations over time. How did environmental change
shape the evolution of new adaptations, the origin and extinction of early hominin
species, and the emergence of our species, Homo sapiens? (‘Hominin’ refers to any
bipedal species closely related to humans – that is, on the human divide of the
evolutionary tree since human and chimpanzee ancestors branched off from a common
ancestor sometime between 6 and 8 million years ago.)
5. Aerobic respiration, or cell respiration in the presence of oxygen, uses the end
product of glycolysis (pyruvate) in the TCA cycle to produce much more energy
currency in the form of ATP than can be obtained from any anaerobic pathway.
source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/biology/celres.html
source: http://www.biology.iupui.edu/biocourses/N100/2k4ch7respirationnotes.html
source: http://humanorigins.si.edu/research/climate-research/effects