Process of Energy Production by Aerobic Respiration

Running head: MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY
Topic: MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY
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MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY1
Describe the process of energy production (the formation of ATP) by aerobic
respiration from biochemical and cellular levels to anatomical and physiological levels
within the human organism.
Cellular respiration is one of the most important metabolic pathways in the cellular
system. Aerobic respiration is the most important biological process which utilizes energy
form the glucose as well as other organic compounds. The ultimate aim of the respiration
process is the creation of ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate (Hill, 2014). The four major steps
including the various steps are
 Glycolysis
 Acetyl Co-A formation
 Citric Acid cycle
 ETC or Electron Transport Cycle
Fig 1: The breakdown of food into various components and detailed energy production
process both aerobic and anaerobic respiration

MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY2
Glycolysis
The primary step of the process of aerobic respiration involves glycolysis. The
process usually occurs in the location of cytosol of the cell. Glycolysis involves glucose
breakdwon which is mainly separated into 2 ATP as well as 2 NAPDH molecules. It is used
inclusive of the process of the aerobic respiration. There are total nine steps of glycolysis for
the conversion which is inclusive of glucose into pyruvate (Lenzen 2014).
The first step phosphorylation takes place though addition of phosphate groups to
molecule usually taken from ATP. Thus after the first step, 1 molecule of ATP has been
usually consumed. The reaction catalyzed by hexokinase involves Mg2+ ions for shielding the
negative charges. The second step involves the conversion which is inclusive of glucose 6
phosphate to fructose 6 phosphate through phosphoglucose isomerase. This is usually an
isomerization reaction. In the third step there is conversion of fructose 6 phosphate to
fructose 1, 6 bisphosphate through ATP utilization. It is added to the fructose 6 phosphate
molecule. This equation is catalyzed by phosphofructokinase. The fourth step is the final step
of the first stage of glycolysis which involves the cleavage of the molecule for fructose
bisphosphate for yielding 2 3 carbon molecules. One is glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate as well as
the other is dihydroxy acetone phosphate (Heerden et al. 2015).
The sixth step involves the dehydrogenation of the glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate
dehydrogenase molecule and addition of an inorganic phosphate causing the formation of 1, 3
bisphospho glycerate. In the next step there is transfer of the phosphate group’s form from 1,
3 bisphos-phoglycerate to ADP for formation of ATP as well as 3 phosphoglycerate through
phosphoglycertae kinase. Thus in this step there is synthesis of two molecule s for ATP.
Thus the net ATP balance is 0. The last three steps are inclusive of relocation of phosphate
form 3 phosphoglyceratae to 2 phosphoglycerate through transfer from the 3rd carbon to the
second carbon. Followed by conversion of 2 phosphoglycertae to phosphoenol pyruvate