Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 44

Assignment Example These two ends help the cells mix properly with water. Phospholipid bilayers contain transport and receptor proteins, which help the transport substances in and out of the cell. The plasma membrane is a semi-permeable membrane; it allows the substances needed for the functioning of the cell to enter, while filters out the rest. Also, the membrane helps maintain a cell potential inside the cell that assists in communication and the exchange of signals from outside the cell (Pandey, 2010) The three steps for cellular respiration are glycolysis, The Krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. Glycolysis is the process in which glucose molecules are broken down from carbohydrates into pyruvates. In this process, a phosphate is removed from ATP, which becomes ADP, and is given to the glucose molecule, making it more chemically reactive. The Krebs cycle is an aerobic process, which means that it requires oxygen. It is a sequence of steps using enzymes as catalysts, which results in the complete oxidization of the Acetyl CoA molecule. The electron transport chain is the process in which most energy is released that has been trapped in the glucose molecule. The electron transport chain is a system of electron-carrying proteins that are found in the inner membrane of the mitochondria. The electrons are passed along these proteins and are finally joined with oxygen, which is the last electron acceptor (â€Å"Understanding Cellular Respiration†, n.d.) Respiration makes use of oxygen to perform the function of electron acceptor to form ATP. During fermentation, inorganic electron donors are used to form ATP such as sulfur and methane. Although both the processes use the same substances to produce ATP, they vary in their respective processes and the amount of energy that is released. Respiration results in the production of 38 ATP, while fermentation only manages to produce 2 ATP.