Cellular Respiration Vocabulary

Flashcards relating to cellular respiration.

Cellular Respiration

The process by which living cells obtain energy from organic molecules, primarily to make ATP and NADH.

Aerobic Respiration

The type of respiration that uses oxygen, consuming it and releasing carbon dioxide.

Glucose

A commonly used six-carbon organic molecule (C6H12O6) that is broken down during cellular respiration.

Glycolysis

The first stage of cellular respiration where glucose is broken down into two pyruvate molecules.

Pyruvate Breakdown

The second stage of cellular respiration involving the breakdown of pyruvate into acetyl groups and carbon dioxide.

Citric Acid Cycle

The third stage of cellular respiration where acetyl groups are further oxidized, releasing carbon dioxide, ATP, NADH, and FADH2.

Oxidative Phosphorylation

The fourth stage of cellular respiration where NADH and FADH2 are oxidized via the electron transport chain to generate an H+ gradient, which is then used to make ATP.

Cytosol

The location in eukaryotes where glycolysis occurs.

Pyruvate Oxidation

Occurs in the mitochondrial matrix and involves the breakdown or oxidation of pyruvate.

Pyruvate Dehydrogenase

The enzyme complex that breaks down pyruvate, producing carbon dioxide and acetyl CoA.

Krebs Cycle

Another name for the Citric Acid Cycle, named after the person who elucidated the cycle.

Substrate Level Phosphorylation

The process in which something bound to an enzyme transfers a phosphate group to ADP.

Warburg Effect

The effect where cancer cells preferentially use glycolysis while decreasing oxidative phosphorylation.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

A method to detect, diagnose, and detect cancers by injecting a radiolabeled glucose analog.

ATP Synthase

Uses the energy within an H+ gradient to make ATP.

Electron Transport Chain

The oxidation of NADH and oxidation of FADH2 via the electron transport chain generates an H plus gradient.

Chemiosmosis

ATP synthesis powered by the movement of ions across a membrane.

Bacterial Rhodopsin

A protein that serves as an H+ pump that is driven by light, not ATP hydrolysis.