Importance of Cellular Respiration

The production of the energy necessary for any form of life to exist is carried out at the cellular level, thanks to a complex process called cellular respiration. Without the ability to generate ways of obtaining metabolic energy, no form of life would be possible, therefore, The importance of cellular respiration is to allow the use of the potential chemical energy of the carbs, for the development of the other metabolic functions that allow the sustenance of life.

Although it is true that there are other types of metabolic combinations of organic substances and inorganic elements in eukaryotic cells capable of generate energy, as for example in processes such as lipolysis, none of them can be carried out without the previous generation of energy product of the cellular respiration, positioning this process at the base of the pyramid of metabolic functions for the development and continuity of life, hence its Vital importance.

Cellular respiration always has as its starting point the use of oxygen and carbohydrates, to produce as a result the release of carbon dioxide, water and ATP – Adenosine Triphosphate – as a source of cellular energy for all other functions metabolic.

The Function of Mitochondria

In eukaryotic cells, the function of cellular respiration falls to a specific type of organelle known as mitochondria and the metabolic process that makes use of oxygen for energy production in the form of ATP is the result of the combination of the products of the Krebs cycle, also called citric acid, and the subsequent phosphorylation oxidative.

The amount of mitochondria present in a given cell depends directly on the amount of energy that this may require and that is influenced in turn by the type of tissue that constitute. A clear example is the comparison of energy consumption between a muscle and a kidney, the cells of the first will always tend to have a greater number of mitochondria than those of the second.

This activity of the mitochondria is not the only one for which these important organelles exist; within them, functions of the fatty acid cycle, the electron transport and processes of coupled phosphorylation, the latter two being also essential for energy production. In the same way, they are regulatory entities of calcium ions and the production of sex hormones, both female and male. With all this burden responsibility assigned to mitochondria, it is not surprising that their malfunction can produce a large number of affectations, ranging from the development of metabolic syndromes, to the death of the cell itself or even the individual.

Prokaryotic cells, as is well known, lack cellular organelles, therefore their mechanism of respiration for energy production takes place – without mitochondria – in a scattered manner in its cytoplasm. This particular condition has allowed them to develop, in many of their species, modes of anaerobic respiration through the metabolization of other inorganic elements such as nitrogen and sulfur, as the primary source for obtaining their energy, and even some may be so incompatible with oxygen that they die in its presence at high temperatures. amounts.

From the environment to the cells

Oxygen is assimilated by plants and animals, from the air, water, and even the soil, through completely different mechanisms.

Plants have microstructures called stomata, which are mostly present in the leaves, which allow the uptake of oxygen from the air during the respiration phase of the plant, using it to generate glucose as a source of energy storage and carbon dioxide as a product residual. Later with the phase of photosynthesis, plants convert stored glucose and carbon dioxide that they take from the environment, through the intervention of sunlight, into the energy they require for their growth and development of other functions such as flowering and fruit generation, reintegrating oxygen into the air in the molecular state that they had taken.

On the other hand, animals have evolved developing different organs for oxygen uptake depending on the environment in which they live, thus, living animals terrestrial are capable of obtaining oxygen from the air through their lungs, while those of aquatic life have gills in their vast majority, although it is true that mammals such as whales and dolphins, as well as some fish - all belonging to the Dipnoi order, descendants of the coelacanths - also have lungs with which they absorb oxygen from the body. air.

References

Salvat Library (1973). The evolution of the species. Barcelona, ​​Spain. Salvat Editors.

Du Praw, E. (1971). biology Cellular and Molecular. HE. Barcelona, ​​Spain. Omega Editions, S.A.

Lehninger, A. (1977). Biochemistry. 2nd Edition. Havana City, Cuba. Editorial People and Education.

Mathews, C. et al. (2005). Biochemistry. 3rd Edition. Madrid Spain. Pearson–Addison Wesley.

Villa, C. (1996). Biology. 8th Edition. Mexico. McGraw-Hill.