ANAEROBIC RESPIREATION

 Partial oxidation of respiratory substances in the absence

of atmospheric oxygen is termed as anaerobic
respiration.
 It involves incomplete breakdown of respiratory
substances in the presence of certain micro-organisms, in
which end products may be ethyl alcohol or lactic acid.
 The organisms making use of anaerobic respiration are
called Anaerobes.

 There are two types of Anaerobes

Facultative Anaerobes Obligate Anaerobes

The facultative anaerobes
can live mostly aerobically
or anaerobically when
grown in suitable medium
Eg: Lactic acid bacteria,
butyric acid bacteria.
The obligate bacteria live in
the absence of oxygen or in
conditions where it its
concentration is negligible.
Eg: Clostridium.
STEPS INVOLVED IN ANAEROBIC
RESPIRATION
 The first step of anaerobic respiration is glycolysis in
which glucose is incompletely oxidized to 2 pyruvic
acid molecules with 2ATP and NADH2 formed as as
bi-products.
 The 2 molecules of ATP of glycolysis is the only energy
yield per glucose molecule in anaerobic respiration.

 The second step can be alcoholic fermentation or

lactic acid fermentatiom.
 C6H12O6 (Glucose)
2 ATP

2 NADH2

2 C3H4O3 ( pyruvic acid )

Alcoholic Lactic acid
fermentation fermentation
Decarboxylation Pyruvate decarboxylase
2NADH2
2CH3CHO 2NAD + Reduction
(acetaldehyde) H2
Reduction 2NADH2 2C2H6O3 (Lactic acid)
Alcohol dehydrogenase 2NAD +
C6H12O6 2C3H6O3 + 2ATP
H2
2C2H5OH (Ethy alcohol)
C6H12O6 2C2H5OH + 2CO2 + 2ATP
Differences b/w aerobic respiration and fermentation
Aerobic respiration
*It occurs in all living cells throughout the
day and night.
*It takes place in the presence of o2.
*It is intracellular.
*The end products are CO2 and H2O.
*Food materials are completely oxidised.
*The complete oxidation of one molecule of
glucose produces 38 ATP’s.
*Enzyme zymase is not required but many
other enzymes and co-enzymes are required.
*The reaction of aeroic respiration can be
represented as follows:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 6CO2 + 6 H2O + 38 ATP
Fermentation
*It occurs in certain bacteria and fungi.
*It takes place in the absence of o2.
*It is extracellular.
*The end products are CO2, Ethanol, lactic
acid and other organic acids.
*Food materials are partially oxidised.
*In fermentation, one glucose molecule
produces only 2 ATP’s.
*The fermentation requires enzyme zymase
particularly in case of carbohydrates.
*The reaction of fermentation (ethyl
alcohol) can be represented as follows:
C6H12O6 2C3H6O3 + 2 ATP
OXYGEN:
 Presence or absence of oxygen decides the type of respiration
 It is the ultimate hydrogen acceptor in aerobic respiration and
helps to generate ATP.
 In its absence, anaerobic respiration occurs
 In certain anaerobes like yeast show reduced glycolytic rate and
switch over to aerobic respiration when exposed to oxygen
supply. This phenomenon is called Pasteur’s effect and these
microbes are called facultative anaerobes. Certain anaerobes get
killed when exposed to oxygen and these are called obligatory
anaerobes, when the oxygen concentration in air decreases below
2% it inhibits aerobic respiration.
CARBON DIOXIDE:
 It is liberated as by-product in respiration, and
generally it diffuses out.
 If it accumulates in the cell, it inhibits the respiration,
but in plant cells CO2 formed during respiration is
used as the source for photosynthesis. Hence they
do not suffer from this factor.
 However, if its concentration in air is above 0.5%
especially in poorly aerated soil, has retarding
effect on rate of respiration.
TEMPERATURE:
 All respiratory enzymes are temperature sensitive,
increase in temperature from 00c upto 300c increases
the rate of respiration. The rate doubles for every 100c
rise in temperature.this is called Vant Hoff’s law.
 Above 350c the enzyme activity slows down and above
450c enzymes get denatured and respiration is
inhibited.
WATER:
 It is an important component of protoplasm
 The protoplasm becomes inactive in the absence of
water and effects enzyme activities, hence it affects
respiration process.
 Rate of respiration decreases with decreased amount
of water. It is because of this reason water soaked
germinating seeds respire more rapidly than dry seeds
which show a little or no respiration.
PROTOPLASMIC FACTORS:
 It is the amount of protoplasm present in cells. Young
meristematic cells with dense protoplasm respire more
rapidly than mature cells with vacuolated protoplasm.
RESPIRATORY SUBSTRATE:
 The most commonly used substrate for respiration is
glucose.
 Availability of glucose in enough quantity in cells is
important factor for respiration
 It is seen that rate of respiration is directly
proportional to the concentration of glucose in cells.
RESPIRATORY INHIBITORS
 Chemicals like cyanides, acetone, chloroform, ether,
iodoacetate, 2-4-dinitro phenol etc.. Inhibit
respiration.
 These respiratory inhibitors inhibit enzyme action and
as a result of that, the rate of respiration is reduced.
RESPIRATORY QUOTIENT(RQ)
 Respiratory quotient (RQ) is the ratio of the volume of
CO2 liberated to the volume of O2 taken in during
respiration in a given period of time at standard
temperature and pressure.

The volume of CO2 liberated

R.Q =
The volume of O2 taken

Based on the respiratory substrates used , their R.Q may be unity, lass than unity
Or more than unity.
R.Q is equal to unity
 When the respiratory substrate is carbohydrate or
hexose sugar, the RQ value will be unity because,
volume of CO2 liberated will be equal to volume of O2
taken in.
It can be shown by the following equation.

C6H12O6 + 6O2 6CO2 + 6H2O + 686 K. cal energy

6
R.Q= = 1 or Unity
6
R.Q less than unity
 When fats and proteins are used in respiration the R.Q
is less than unity. Fats and proteins are poor in oxygen
and need more oxygen for their complete oxidation.
The oxidation of fat can be shown by taking example
of Tripalmitin fat.
C6H12H6 + 145O2 102 CO2 + 98 H2O

R.Q= 102 = 0.7 (Less than unity)

145
R.Q more than unity
 RQ is always more than unity in succulent xerophytes,
where organic acids are oxidised during respiration.
These acids are rich in O2 and therefore require less
O2 and liberate more CO2. For example RQ of oxalic
acid can be 4 as shown below.
2(COOH)2 + O2 4 CO2 + 2H2O + 60.2 K.Cal

R.Q= 4 = 4 ( More than unity)

1
Significance of R.Q
 The measurement of R.Q indicates the type of
respiratory substrates used in respiration
 When R.Q is 1 respiratory substrate used in respiration
must be hexose sugars, while less than one substrates
used may be either fats or proteins and RQ more than
one indicates that certain organic acids are used for
respiration.
 It also indicates the type of intermediate compounds
formed, even the nature and type of respiration.
PASTEUR EFFECT
 After the discovery of alcoholic fermentation, Pasteur
in 1961 found that under anaerobic conditions much
more sugar was taken up per quantity of yeast present
than was consumed in the presence of O2.
 Facultative anaerobes like yeast when respiring
anaerobically, if supplied with O2alcoholic fermentation
is stopped completely and then switch over to aerobic
respiration. The shift from anaerobic respiration to
aerobic respiration to aerobic respiration of yeast is
called Pasteur Effect.