Master Anaerobic Respiration with Picmonic for Medicine

Glucose is a 6-carbon carbohydrate that is broken down and released as carbon dioxide in order to generate ATP in the cell.

Glycolysis is the process of breaking down glucose into a 3-carbon pyruvate to prepare it for aerobic respiration.

Substrate-level phosphorylation is the production of ATP from ADP by a direct transfer of a high-energy phosphate group from a phosphorylated intermediate metabolic compound in an exergonic catabolic pathway.

The total number of NADH generated in glycolysis is 2. NADH are high energy electron carriers that take electrons from the breakdown of glucose and transport them to the electron transport chain.

Glycolysis costs 2 ATP in the preparation steps and produces a total of 4 ATP per molecule of glucose, resulting in 2 net ATP.

Two pyruvate molecules are formed at the end of glycolysis from the breakdown of glucose. These pyruvate molecules then feed into fermentation in the absence of oxygen and aerobic respiration in the presence of oxygen.

Fermentation is a metabolic pathway that reduces pyruvate to ethanol or lactic acid in the absence of oxygen.

The goal of fermentation is to regenerate NAD+ from the NADH so that glycolysis can continue to occur in the absence of oxygen.

Fermentation produces either alcohol or lactic acid as a waste product.