The process described in this chapter is called cellular respiration because it involves cells using O2 and releasing CO2, just like how animals breathe to survive. My answer might indicate that scientists already knew about respiration in animals, meaning they knew animals take in O2 and expel CO2 in breathing, when they first observed cellular respiration. Since all steps of cellular respiration are closely connected, there would be a lot of problems if glycolysis, the Krebs Cycle, or the electron transport chain were not working. Glycolysis involves a six-carbon glucose molecule splitting into two three-carbon pyruvate molecules and results in energy being harvested into NADH and ATP. If the glycolysis was not working, the ‘’transition step”, which oxidizes the two pyruvate molecules produced in glycolysis that results in each pyruvate molecule being converted to an acetyl CoA molecule would not be possible. If the “transition step” cannot occur, the Krebs Cycle, which involves the two acetyl CoA molecules being oxidized and resulting in yielding 4 CO2, 2 ATP, 6 NADH, and 2 FADH2, cannot occur. If the Krebs Cycle cannot occur, then the …show more content…
This relates to how aerobic respiration occurs in mitochondria in that in eukaryotic cells, glycolysis also occurs in the cytoplasm; however, the Krebs cycle occurs in the mitochondrial matrix. Both the electron transport chain and ATP synthase are in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The relationship between bacteria and mitochondria can be explained through endosymbiosis, which is a theory that states that a large “host” cell engulfed one of the ancient cyanobacteria and transmitted itself into a eukaryotic-like cell with chloroplasts. Mitochondria may have evolved in a similar way, when larger cells engulfed bacteria that was capable of using