What Is Anaerobic Respiration?

Generally speaking, under anaerobic conditions, through the catalytic action of enzymes, animal and plant cells break down organic substances such as sugars into incomplete oxidation products and release a small amount of energy.

Anaerobic respiration refers to incomplete oxidation of organisms by biological cells. This process did not

Anaerobic breathing difference

Anaerobic respiration: refers to the process in which cells live under anaerobic or anoxic conditions and incompletely oxidize and decompose organic substances such as glucose into alcohol or lactic acid through the catalytic action of enzymes, while releasing energy. This process does not involve molecular oxygen, and its incomplete oxidation products are mainly alcohol or lactic acid.

Anaerobic breathing

Total Anaerobic Respiration:

Lactic acid fermentation: C ₆ H ₁₂ O ₆ -enzyme- 2C ₃ H ₆ O ₃ (lactic acid) + small amount of energy

Alcoholic fermentation: C ₆ H ₁₂ O ₆ -enzyme- 2C ₂ H ₅ OH (alcohol) + 2CO ₂ + small amount of energy

Aerobic respiration : Aerobic respiration refers to the process by which cells, in the presence of oxygen, oxidize and decompose organic substances such as sugars through the catalysis of enzymes to produce carbon dioxide and water, and at the same time release a large amount of energy. Aerobic respiration is the main form of higher animal and plant respiration.

Difference: Aerobic respiration is mainly in the mitochondria, while anaerobic respiration is mainly in the cellular matrix. Aerobic breathing requires molecular oxygen, while anaerobic breathing does not require molecular oxygen. The aerobic respiratory decomposition products are carbon dioxide and water, and the anaerobic respiratory decomposition products are alcohol or lactic acid. Aerobic breathing releases more energy and anaerobic breathing releases less energy.

Anaerobic respiratory connection

All animals and plants need to perform respiration. Animals and plants use the respiration to decompose the organic matter in the body and release a large amount of energy to meet the energy requirements for growth and other life. ^{[3] A} careful analysis of the respiration process reveals that the two types of respiration also have something in common.

1. From the perspective of changes in matter and energy, both are decomposing organic matter to release energy.

2. From the perspective of the reaction process, the first reaction of these two types of breathing is the decomposition of glucose into pyruvate in the cytoplasmic matrix.

3 From the perspective of biological evolution, the atmosphere of the primitive earth did not contain oxygen. Therefore, the living creatures' breathing methods at that time were anaerobic breathing. After the emergence of autotrophic organisms such as cyanobacteria, aerobic respiration occurred only when there was oxygen in the atmosphere. It can be seen that aerobic breathing is developed on the basis of anaerobic breathing.

Pros and cons of anaerobic breathing

From the perspective of energy supply, aerobic respiration can release 2870kJ of energy per 1mol of glucose. While anaerobic respiration breaks down 1mol glucose, it can only release 196.65kJ of energy. For aerobic organisms, most of the energy required for life activities is provided by aerobic respiration, and the energy provided by anaerobic respiration cannot meet the needs of maintaining biological life activities. Therefore, for providing energy, aerobic respiration is better than anaerobic respiration.

From a product perspective, the end products of aerobic respiration are carbon dioxide and water, which are harmless to the organism. The end products of anaerobic breathing are lactic acid or alcohol and carbon dioxide. The formation of lactic acid can cause some adverse reactions in animals, such as muscle soreness. Too much lactic acid may also cause changes in homeostasis and lactic acidosis. Alcohol has a strong toxic effect on plant cells. Therefore, the anaerobic respiration of aerobic organisms is basically to help the organism to survive some of the bad environment of hypoxia and cannot be performed for a long time. Therefore, from the perspective of whether the end product is toxic, aerobic respiration is better than anaerobic respiration.