Lab Report on Cellular Respiration and Fermentation

General Biology LABORATORY REPORT Date Performed : October 23, 2019, Due : November 13, 2019. ABSTRACT: This experiment is designed to explain two important metabolic processes of the living cell i.e. Cellular Respiration and Fermentation. These, primarily cellular respiration, are the vital processes of generating ATPs in the living cell. The experiment was divided into two major part which are explained below briefly. Part 1- Cellular Respiration Cellular Respiration is the major source of energy generation in the living cell. The experiment has been carried out in order to prove that this process require oxygen and release carbon dioxide into the environment. Three respiration chambers have been used. First chamber contains germination seeds, second contain non-germinating seed and the third one contains glass head. The glass-bead-containing-chamber has been used as a negative control. The absorption of oxygen from the pipet was carefully observed throughout the experiment in each chamber. In the course of experiment, we observed that the water drop placed at "0" in the pipet started to move toward the chamber where germinating seeds were placed. This movement of water depicts the consumption of oxygen during the cellular respiration. While in other case, there was negligible or no movement at all depicting no cellular respiration. We used a formula in order to calculate the amount of oxygen consumed. The data concludes that only germinating seeds are capable of carrying the cellular respiration. Part II- Fermentation This set of experiment has been performed to evaluate the rate of fermentation using different forms of sugar. The rate of fermentation can be assessed by measuring the amount of carbon dioxide production by the yeast. The different level of CO: production was compared in-between the six different tubes which contain six different sets of experiment, each differing with the type of sugar being used. The maximum amount of CO₂ was observed in a experiment set which contained Glucose and yeast solution. This proves that glucose, a monomer sugar, is most favorable among other complex sugars for the fermentation. INTRODUCTION Every living cell require energy to perform life activities. The energy required is found in the form of ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) in our body. These ATPs are produced by either of the two processes: Cellular respiration or Fermentation. The key difference between two is the amount of glucose they oxidize and the consumption of oxygen during the process. Cellular respiration is an aerobic process which require oxygen to proceed while fermentation doesn't. Another major difference is the number of ATPs each of the process generate. One molecule of glucose gives off 29 ATPs during cellular respiration while fermentation only produce 2 ATPs. Cellular respiration is a much-sophisticated process which is completed in multiple steps. Mitochondria is the primary site of cellular respiration. There are four major processes of cellular respiration viz. Glycolysis, Pyruvate Processing, Krebs's Cycle (Calvin Cycle), and Electron Transport Chain and Oxidative phosphorylation. Only glycolysis takes place in the cytoplasm of the cell and rest of the processes takes place in the mitochondria. Sir Hans Adolf Krebs discover the Krebs's Cycle in 1937 for which he got the Nobel Prize in Medicine too. In human, fermentation takes place in the muscle cells when there is lack of oxygen in the body. Fermentation converts glucose into Lactic acid or ethanol along with CO2. MATERIALS AND METHODS Part 1- Cellular Respiration The following are the materials used during the experiment of cellular respiration: 1. Germinating Seeds 6. Colored Water 2. Non-germinating seeds 7. Pipettes 3. Glass Beads 4. NaOH 5. Respiration Chamber with Rubber stoppers Experiment was proceeded following the steps. 1. The experimental set up was acquired using the three respiration chambers, inserting water-drop-filled pipets into the chambers through the rubber stoppers.