Cellular Respiration Lab Report

Abstract – For organisms to be able to perform an extremely essential function that allows for the maintenance of life, the metabolic pathway, cellular respiration, is above all on level of importance. Cellular respiration, in short, is an enzyme-assisted, step-by-step process that creates the energy the organism requires to thrive through catabolism of fuel. To investigate the importance of the process we call cellular respiration, as well as understand the factors that keep this cycle going, an experiment was set up. Test solutions made of different amounts of the enzyme, chemical indicator, carrier, inhibitor, and substrate were set up and tested for their enzymatic rate through the use of a spectrophotometer. Our results determined that

If the aerobic cellular respiration path is taken, the cycle can be broken down into three important yet different parts. First of all, as the cell receives the glucose molecules, glycolysis catabolizes (breaks down) these glucose molecules into 2 pyruvate molecules, which retain most of the energy of the glucose, otherwise known as pyruvic acid, while releasing two water molecules as a byproduct and a net of two ATP. These pyruvates are then transferred into the mitochondrial matrix, converted into acetyl-Co and then introduced into the matrix of the mitochondria to the citric acid cycle known as the Krebs cycle, in which carbon molecules are released as carbon dioxide. During the first two parts of cellular respiration, also known as substrate-level phosphorylation, it is important to understand that both glycolysis and the Krebs cycle produce energized electron carriers FADH2 and NADH by the reduction of coenzymes NAD+ and FAD, which are removed from the acetyl group of the acetyl Co-A that enter the Krebs cycle. These energized electron carriers are then transferred to the electron transport chain on the inner membrane and undergo oxidative phosphorylation, otherwise known as chemiosmosis. This is where most of the ATP is produced. These negatively charged electron

Enzymes are proteins, and more specifically, they are substances that acts as catalysts to specific biochemical reactions. They lower the energy required to perform biochemical reactions, which is vital to cellular respiration. With the help of an organic non-protein compound known as a coenzyme (NAD+ and FAD in cellular respiration), which keeps the enzyme functioning properly, and with the perfect temperature and pH levels that each enzyme requires, enzymes are able to perform their reduction of energy barriers at optimal rates. Since enzymes aid in making biochemical reactions faster, there must be something to monitor and control the enzyme’s reaction rate. This is where inhibitors are most important. An inhibitor is a substance that works by altering the rate of the catalytic action the enzyme is undergoing and may even stop catalysis completely. Two types of inhibitors, competitive and noncompetitive (allosteric), control the catalytic reactions in different ways. Competitive inhibitors closely resemble the chemical structure and shape of the substrate trying to bind to an enzyme, and compete for the active site on the enzyme to stop a chemical reaction from occurring. On the other hand, a noncompetitive inhibitor interacts with the enzyme as well but not on the active site. Instead, this inhibitor binds to an allosteric site (one