Question

What is the similarity and difference of anaerobic respiration and fermentation?

Answer 1

Answer:

All organisms depend on the production of energy, in order to function. Most of them make use of glucose as the main material for extracting the necessary energy to survive. However, some of these organisms will use, or not need to use, oxygen, in conjunction with glucose, in order to be able to generte ATP, the molecule that is responsible for powering up a living organisms´ cellular activities. In order to achieve this formation of ATP, then, all organisms will need at least glucose present, and most, will require also the presence of oxygen, to generate ATP. The two mechanisms by which ATP is produced, then, are: aerobic and anaerobic respiration.

In similarities, these two processes have several. First, the two require a substrate to work with, which is glucose, or a source that can yield glucose molecules. The second is that both mechanisms are used to provide ATP to living organisms, and three, they both are ways to acquire energy.

However, there are also differences. The most important being that aerobic respiration requires not just glucose, but also oxygen, in order to produce ATP, while anaerobic respiration just needs glucose. The second most important is that anaerobic respiration yields much less ATP molecules than aerobic respiration. And the third difference is that while from the chemical reaction in aerobic respiration an organism gets water and carbon dioxide, the second reaction in anaerobic respiration yields lactic acid and also ethanol (fermentation).