VCE · Biology · Biochemical Pathwayslive from the app
Aerobic vs Anaerobic Respiration
Without oxygen the electron transport chain stalls, and cells fall back on fermentation. It's a poor deal energetically — about 2 ATP instead of 30 — but it keeps glycolysis running when the alternative is nothing at all.
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the one idea
why this one carries the topic.
Life runs on two reactions pointing opposite ways: one traps energy from light, one lets it out of sugar. Everything else here is detail on those two.
Aerobic respiration uses oxygen to produce roughly 30 ATP per glucose via the electron transport chain, while anaerobic respiration relies on fermentation to produce only 2 ATP but keeps glycolysis running when oxygen is unavailable.
what examiners catch — Students often forget that fermentation regenerates NAD+ to keep glycolysis going, not to produce extra ATP.
what you leave with
five things, not forty.
Aerobic respiration requires oxygen and yields around 30-32 ATP per glucose
Anaerobic respiration yields only 2 ATP, from glycolysis alone
In animals, pyruvate becomes lactic acid; in yeast and plants, ethanol and CO2
Fermentation regenerates NAD+ so glycolysis can continue
Anaerobic pathways are fast but inefficient — useful for short bursts of activity
what's underneath
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knowhere maps every concept to what it rests on and what rests on it — 1 underneath this one, 0 built on top. Each one says why, in a sentence, not as an arrow on a diagram.
this conceptaerobic vs anaerobic respirationAerobic respiration uses oxygen to produce roughly 30 ATP per glucose via the electron transport chain, while anaerobic respiration relies on fermentation to produce only 2 ATP but keeps glycolysis running when oxygen is unavailable.
sits under itcellular respiration: the big picturebecause anaerobic is the big picture with the ending changed
the rest of biochemical pathways
11 more, same treatment.
Each one is its own knowscape in the app — built for how a particular student takes things in, not one explanation handed to everybody.
c3, c4 and cam plantsin the appfactors affecting the rate of photosynthesisin the appregulation by feedback inhibitionin the applight-dependent and light-independent stagesin the appoxidative phosphorylation and the electron transport chainin the appthe krebs cyclein the appthe three stages of cellular respirationin the appenzymes and the regulation of pathwaysin the appphotosynthesis: inputs, outputs and locationin the appglycolysis structure and controlin the appcellular respiration: the big picturein the app
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