Could someone please confirm whether this is correct

[neda]

I'm hoping somebody could help me with the following question.

Is aerobic respiration more effective than anaerobic respiration in generating ATP because carbon dioxide and water are produced in the mitochondrion.

My own thoughts are that both statements are true but they are independent of one another, but that's me reading between the lines as well as looking at the Krebs cycle, as none of the books I've been searching in give a direct answer.

Your help would be appreciated, so thanks in advance to anyone who answers.

[Peter Pedant]

Hmmmm - like a lot of poor questions, this causes angst.

Aerobic resp - for ea mol Glucose i think it is 38 mols ATP

anaerobic resp - something like 6

so aerobic resp wins!

because Co2 and water are produced in the mitochondrion....which is true....

But is there causality....well I think not. I think aerobic resp is more efficient because biochemically, more energy can be released and it doesnt matter where.....

I know this is difficult - I hope the above allows you to make the right choice

[neda]

Cheers for that Peter, think I just needed confirmation for what I thought already. Much appreciated.

[gen2]

ATP is energy rich and the source of this energy is the glucose molecule. The more energy that can be extracted from the bonds in glucose, the more ATP can be made. Unfortunately, without oxygen (anaerobic conditions) the glucose cannot be completely broken down into CO2 and water to release the maximum energy. The extra oxygen (of aerobic conditions) is needed for that.

[neda]

Hi gen2

Thanks for responding to this, now I'm slightly confused. Do you think that aerobic respiration is more effective because the CO2 and water is produced in the mitochondrion and therefore the extra energy is released. Sorry to question your answer, but it has now got me thinking again when I thought I maybe had it sussed.

[whyround]

Hello,

The this is that there are 4 main sections of respiration, glycolysis, the bridging reaction, krebs cycle and the electron transport chain (ETC).

During anaerobic respiration the bridging reaction cant occur (so krebs and ETC cant either), so only only glycolysis happens, which only produces 6 moles of ATP from 1 mol of glucose. CO2 is also produced during the bridging reaction so that is why it is not produced during anaerobic respiration.

If you want to know more check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

[ktk]

Both carbon dioxide and water are produced as a result of the oxidation of glucose during aerobic respiration, oxygen being the final hydrogen acceptor in the electron transport chain. A small amount of ATP can be produced as a result of glycolysis without oxygen in the cytoplasm (anaerobic respiration). The product of glycolysis (pyruvate) then enters the mitochondria where the Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation occur.