How do glucose and oxygen provide the energy animals need to live?

Question

I'm a well educated person, but I just don't fully understand the exact inner workings of animal cells. Don't put it in lamen's terms, I want to know all about it.

Answer 1

the basics of the process are called aerobic cellular respiration. the whole point of the process is the produce a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is created in one of two ways 1) substrate phosphorylation - by taking a phosphate from another molecule and attaching it to ADP or 2) oxidative phosphorylation - by using energy released during oxidation - reduction reactions to fuse a free floating phosphate to ADP. The breakdown of glucose powers both of these processes in the cell.

respiration is broken down into an anerobic stage called glycolysis that occurs in the cytoplasm, and a set of aerobic stages (pyruvate oxidation, Kreb's Cycle, and the Electron Transport Chain) that take place in the Mitochondria.

During Glycolysis sugars are split in half to release a small amount of ATP through substrate phosphorylation and a molecule called NADH which stores high energy electrons for a short period of time. The other product of glycoysis is Pyruvate.

The pyruvate is broken down during pyruvate oxidation and Kreb's cycle to release all of the original 6 carbons of glucose as CO2. Each time a carbon is broken off energy is released and stored as either NADH or FADH2.

The electron transport chain then breaks down these NADH's and FADH2's and uses the energy in the electrons to perform oxidative phosphorylation to create ATP.

Usually from a single glucose molecule aerobic respiration will produce between 30 - 36 ATP.