Anaerobic Cell Respiration: Lactate Production
Anaerobic pathways
- Sometimes cells experience conditions with little or no oxygen, which prevents respiratory substrates such as glucose from being completely oxidised
- This prevents most of the reactions that produce ATP from occurring
- However, there is still a way for cells to produce some ATP in low oxygen conditions through anaerobic respiration
- Some cells are able to oxidise the reduced NAD produced during glycolysis so it can be used for further hydrogen transport
- This means that glycolysis can continue and small amounts of ATP are still produced
- There is a net yield of about two ATP molecules per glucose molecule
- Different cells use different pathways to achieve this
- Yeast and microorganisms convert pyruvate to ethanol
- Other microorganisms and mammalian muscle cells convert pyruvate to lactate
Converting pyruvate to lactate
- In this pathway reduced NAD transfers its hydrogens to pyruvate to form lactate
- This allows NAD to be reoxidised in the absence of oxygen and pyruvate formation can continue
- Pyruvate is reduced to lactate by enzyme lactate dehydrogenase
- Pyruvate is the hydrogen acceptor
- The final product lactate can be further metabolised
Lactate Fermentation Diagram
The pathway of lactate fermentation
Metabolisation of lactate
- After lactate is produced two things can happen:
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- It can be oxidised back to pyruvate which is then channelled into the Krebs cycle for ATP production
- It can be converted into glycogen for storage in the liver
- The oxidation of lactate back to pyruvate needs extra oxygen
- This extra oxygen is referred to as an oxygen debt
- It explains why animals breathe deeper and faster after exercise