Why can Lance Armstrong climb so much better than most cyclists?
Individuals inherit various percentages of the two main types of muscle fibers, slow and fast The difference between the two is the process each uses to make ATP Slow fibers make it aerobically using oxygen Good at slow, sustained production of ATP Marathon runners (long distance) have a higher percentage of slow fibers Cellular respiration Fast fibers work anaerobically without oxygen Good at explosive bursts of ATP production Sprinters (short distance) have a higher percentage of fast fibers ATP production is fast and cannot be sustained for long Fermentation of lactic acid The percentage of slow and fast muscle fibers determines the difference between track athletes
All of our cells harvest chemical energy (ATP) from our food Aside: Dark vs Light meat ??
Introduction to Cellular Respiration Photosynthesis and cellular respiration provide energy for life Energy is necessary for life processes These include growth, transport, manufacture, movement, reproduction, and others Energy that supports life on Earth is captured from sun rays reaching Earth through plant, algae, protist, and bacterial photosynthesis
Energy in sunlight is used in photosynthesis to make glucose from CO2 and H2O with release of O2
Other organisms use the O2 and energy in sugar and release CO2 and H2O Together, these two processes are responsible for the majority of life on Earth
Graphic: CO2, water, and sunlight produce glucose and oxygen
Clicker: Cells capture energy released by cellular respiration by producing ATP Clicker: The process of photosynthesis and cellular respiration are complementary. During energy conversions, some energy is lost in the form of heat
Photosynthesis and aerobic respiration form a cycle (from book) Aerobic respiration doesnt create energy it extracts it from food. All the food we eat originally gets its energy from the sun through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis allows plants and algae to capture the energy of sunlight and convert it into chemical energy stored in sugar. Eating this sugar (or animals that have eaten this sugar) makes that stored energy available to us.
Breathing supplies oxygen to our cells for use in cellular respiration and removes carbon dioxide Breathing (respiration) and cellular respiration are closely related Breathing is necessary for exchange of CO2 produced during cellular respiration for atmospheric O2 Cellular respiration uses O2 to help harvest energy from glucose and produces CO2 in the process
The basic conversion of sugar via complete respiration:
For every 1 glucose, you make about 38 ATPs The human body uses energy from ATP for all its activities The average adult human needs about 2,200 kcal of energy per day (75% of our calories are used to perform cellular processes vital to life; remaining 25% for physical activity)
Body Mass Index (BMI) The Body Mass Index (BMI) estimates body fat based on height and weight. Its used by health care professionals to get a rough estimate about whether a person is at risk for health problems related to their weight. People with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 are considered overweight. People with a BMI of 30 and above are considered obese their BMI indicates that they have 20% more body fat than is recommended for their height. BMI can be misleading, though. It doesnt take muscle mass, gender, or frame size into account. Obesity is influenced by biology and culture
Our bodies have evolved to hoard energy in the form of body fat to get through times of food scarcity. When societies adopt American eating habits like fast food, snacks, and soda, they tend to gain weight. Today food is abundant, and people are consuming many more Calories than during any other time in history. Our bodies store extra Calories as fat. Clicker: our bodies evolved to store fat and we are now an obese culture because we used to live in situations where food was scarce and it was a survival advantage to store energy during times of plenty for use during times of scarcity. Our foods used to be nutritionally dense but not very rich in calories.
Food powers cellular work Food is a source of chemical energy that powers our activities. The body breaks down food into subunits that are used either as building blocks to make new organic molecules or as energy to fuel cellular work.
Storing excess Calories When we eat more Calories than our bodies require, we store the extra energy as glycogen in muscle and liver cells or triglycerides in fat cells.
Glycogen is a complex animal carbohydrate, made up of linked chains of glucose molecules. Glycogen is used in our body as short-term energy storage.
Once the bodys glycogen stores have been replenished, excess Calories are stored as triglyceride molecules in fat cells. Triglycerides are a type of lipid found in fat cells that are used for long-term energy storage.
The body burns fat only after it has already used up food molecules in the bloodstream and in stored glycogen. Because each type of energy-rich organic molecule we ingest stores a different amount of energy, the things we eat can contribute to weight gain.
Portion size matters, too
The only way to gain weight is by taking in more Calories than we burn. If more food energy is taken in than is used to power cellular reactions and physical movement, the excess (minus what is released as heat with every energy conversion) is stored as fat.
Extracting energy from food Energy from food is ultimately captured in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). To make ATP, our bodies break food molecules into their smaller subunits through the process of digestion. The subunits leave the small intestine and enter the bloodstream, where they are carried to the bodys cells. Inside the cells, enzymes break apart the bonds holding the subunits together. Then energy stored in those bonds is captured and converted into the molecular bonds that make up ATP.
Cells tap energy from electrons falling from organic fuels to oxygen
The energy necessary for life is contained in the arrangement of electrons in chemical bonds in organic molecules An important question is how do cells extract this energy? Cells tap energy from electrons falling from organic fuels to oxygen When the carbon-hydrogen bonds of glucose are broken, electrons are transferred to oxygen Oxygen has a strong tendency to attract electrons On the other hand, cellular respiration is the controlled breakdown of organic molecules Energy is released in small amounts that can be captured by a biological system and stored in ATP
Aerobic respiration: A closer look Glycolysis takes place in the cytoplasm and is the first step of aerobic respiration. Glycolysis consists of a series of reactions that breaks down sugar into smaller units.
The products of glycolysis enter the cells mitochondria. The second step of aerobic respiration is the citric acid cycle, a series of reactions that helps extract energy (in the form of high-energy electrons) from food. This process releases carbon dioxide, which is ultimately exhaled from an organisms lungs. All bonds of glucose are broken in these first two phases When bonds are broken, electrons are grabbed by shuttles, who bring them and dump them
Fermentation If the rate at which cells consume oxygen exceeds the rate at which they take it in when we breathe, the electron transport chain has no oxygen to which it can deliver electrons. While glycolysis still occurs in the absence of oxygen, its products go to a different process fermentation. Fermentation occurs in the cytoplasm and converts the products of glycolysis into lactic acid or alcohol. The only ATP produced is the small amount produced during glycolysis.
3 carbon molecule converted to lactic acid when there is a huge demand for ATP When you stop sprinting, body turns lactic acid back to pyruvate and feeds it into citric acid cycle
Interconnections Between Molecular Breakdown and Synthesis Cells use many kinds of organic molecules as fuel for cellular respiration Although glucose is considered to be the primary source of sugar for respiration and fermentation, there are actually three sources of molecules for generation of ATP Carbohydrates (disaccharides) Proteins (after conversion to amino acids) Fats
Food molecules provide raw materials for biosynthesis Many metabolic pathways are involved in biosynthesis of biological molecules To survive, cells must be able to biosynthesize molecules that are not present in its foods Often the cell will convert the intermediate compounds of glycolysis and the citric acid cycle to molecules not found in food
An Overview of Photosynthesis Each amino acid has specific properties based on its structure
The Components of Nucleic Acids
Are Dead Zones linked to photosynthesis? Are they linked to cellular respiration? How?
Autotrophs are the producers of the biosphere Autotrophs are living things that are able to make their own food without using organic molecules derived from any other living thing Autotrophs that use the energy of light to produce organic molecules are called photoautotrophs Most plants, algae and other protists, and some prokaryotes are photoautotrophs
Capturing energy: Photosynthesis
Plants and other photosynthesizers use the energy of sunlight to make the molecule glucose using carbon dioxide as a source of carbon. In the process, water molecules are split and oxygen is given off as a by-product.
Autotrophs are the producers of the biosphere The ability to photosynthesize is directly related to the structure of chloroplasts Chloroplasts are organelles consisting of photosynthetic pigments, enzymes, and other molecules grouped together in membranes
Photosynthesis occurs in chloroplasts in eukaryotic cells Chloroplasts are the major sites of photosynthesis in green plants Chlorophyll, an important light absorbing pigment in chloroplasts, is responsible for the green color of plants Chlorophyll plays a central role in converting solar energy to chemical energy
The Light Reactions: Converting Solar Energy to Chemical Energy Visible radiation drives the light reactions Sunlight contains energy called electromagnetic energy or radiation Visible light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the full range of electromagnetic wavelengths Electromagnetic energy travels in waves, and the wavelength is the distance between the crests of two adjacent waves Light behaves as discrete packets of energy called photons A photon is a fixed quantity of light energy, and the shorter the wavelength, the greater the energy
Visible radiation drives the light reactions Pigments, molecules that absorb light, are built into the thylakoid membrane Plant pigments absorb some wavelengths of light and transmit others We see the color of the wavelengths that are transmitted; for example, chlorophyll transmits green Chloroplasts contain several different pigments and all absorb light of different wavelengths Chlorophyll a absorbs blue violet and red light and reflects green Chlorophyll b absorbs blue and orange and reflects yellow-green The carotenoids absorb mainly blue-green light and reflect yellow and orange
Photosystems capture solar power Pigments in chloroplasts are responsible for absorbing photons (capturing solar power), causing release of electrons The electrons jump to a higher energy level (the excited state) where electrons are unstable The electrons drop back down to their ground state, and, as they do, release their excess energy
Chemiosmosis powers ATP synthesis in the light reactions
Interestingly, chemiosmosis is the mechanism that not only is involved in oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria but also generates ATP in chloroplasts ATP is generated because the electron transport chain produces a concentration gradient of hydrogen ions across a membrane
Photosynthesis moderates global warming The greenhouse effect results from solar energy warming our planet Gases in the atmosphere (often called greenhouse gases), including CO2, reflect heat back to Earth, keeping the planet warm and supporting life However, as we increase the level of greenhouse gases, Earths temperature rises above normal, initiating problems Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases lead to global warming, a slow but steady rise in Earths surface temperature The extraordinary rise in CO2 is mostly due to the combustion of carbon-based fossil fuels The consequences of continued rise will be melting of polar ice, changing weather pa4erns, and spread of tropical disease Perhaps photosynthesis can mitigate the increase in atmospheric CO2 However, there is increasing widespread deforestation, which aggravates the global warming problem