What Happens in Respiration in Plants?
Plant cells, like animal cells, extract energy from sugar molecules through a process called cellular respiration. Unlike animal cells, however, plant cells produce the sugar they need using sunlight through a process called photosynthesis. Does this Spark an idea?
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Identification
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For every molecule of glucose (a simple sugar) and six molecules of oxygen consumed, cellular respiration in a plant cell produces six molecules of carbon dioxide, six molecules of water and some energy. Some of this energy is lost as heat; some, however, is stored by synthesizing another compound called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. The cell can use ATP to provide power for other important processes.
Function
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Cellular respiration in plant cells involves a complex series of chemical reactions divided into three major phases: glycolysis, the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. The first phase, glycolysis, breaks up glucose to form two molecules of pyruvate with a net gain of 2 ATP. The second phase consumes the pyruvate produced in the first phase for a net gain of 1 ATP per pyruvate; most of the energy here is transferred to electron carriers like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). In the final phase, the electron carriers donate high-energy electrons to proteins that form the electron transport chain, which powers the synthesis of ATP through a process called chemiosmotic coupling. Most of the ATP produced by cellular respiration is produced in this final phase.
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Significance
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Cellular respiration in plants consumes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide, while photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide and releases oxygen. Plants consume more carbon dioxide than they release, however, so they are net producers of oxygen.
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References
- Photo Credit water plants image by dinostock from Fotolia.com
