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The Importance Of Cellular Respiration

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Background Cellular Respiration is an exergonic, catabolic pathway that breaks down organic matter to produce ATP (Campbell Biology in Focus, 2017). The cellular respiration reaction is C6H12O6 + 6 O2 ➞ 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + Energy (Pearson Education Test Prep Series, 2014). Cellular respiration consists of three main parts with a link reaction. Those parts are glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation. The link reaction is called pyruvate oxidation. CO2 is released during Pyruvate Oxidation and the Krebs Cycle. Two CO2 molecules are released as a waste product each turn of the Krebs Cycle and two CO2 molecules are also released during Pyruvate Oxidation (Pearson Education Test Prep Series, 2014).
Cellular Respiration is catalyzed by enzymes. When the enzymes are impacted, the rate of cellular respiration changes, as well as the rate of CO2 production. For example, if the enzymes slow down, both of the rates also slow down. A decrease in temperature causes the enzymes involved in cellular respiration to not work properly due to not being at their optimal temperature. An increase in temperature causes the cellular respiration reaction to speed up for a certain range and then the protein will denature and lead to a decrease in the rate of cellular respiration (Campbell Biology in Focus, 2017).
Many other factors affect the rate of cellular respiration, and thus, affect the rate of CO2 production. Some of those factors include temperature and glucose

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