All of us breathe to live, but why is breathing so essential to life? What happens when we breathe? Also, do all living organisms, including plants and microbes, breathe? If so, how?
All living organisms need energy for carrying out daily life activities, be it absorption, transport, movement, reproduction or even breathing. Where does all this energy come from? We know we eat food for energy but how is this energy taken from food? How is this energy utilised? Do all foods give the same amount of energy? Do plants ‘eat’? Where do plants get their energy from? And micro-organisms – for their energy requirements, do they eat ‘food’?
You may wonder at the several questions raised above – they may seem to be very disconnected. But in reality, the process of breathing is very much connected to the process of release of energy from food. Let us try and understand how this happens.
All the energy required for ‘life’ processes is obtained by oxidation of some macromolecules that we call ‘food’. Only green plants and cyanobacteria can prepare their own food; by the process of photosynthesis they trap light energy and convert it into chemical energy that is stored in the bonds of carbohydrates like glucose, sucrose and starch. We must remember that in green plants too, not all cells, tissues and organs photosynthesise; only cells containing chloroplasts, that are most often located in the superficial layers, carry out photosynthesis. Hence, even in green plants all other organs, tissues and cells that are non-green, need food for oxidation. Hence, food has to be translocated to all nongreen parts. Animals are heterotrophic, i.e., they obtain food from plants directly (herbivores) or indirectly (carnivores). Saprophytes like fungi are dependent on dead and decaying matter. What is important to recognise is that ultimately all the food that is respired for life processes comes from photosynthesis. This chapter deals with cellular respiration or the mechanism of breakdown of food materials within the cell to release energy, and the trapping of this energy for synthesis of ATP.
Photosynthesis, of course, takes place within the chloroplasts (in the eukaryotes), whereas the breakdown of complex molecules to yield energy takes place in the cytoplasm and in the mitochondria (also only in eukaryotes). The breaking of the \(\mathrm{C-C}\) bonds of complex compounds through oxidation within the cells, leading to release of considerable amount of energy is called respiration. The compounds that are oxidised during this process are known as respiratory substrates. Usually carbohydrates are oxidised to release energy, but proteins, fats and even organic acids can be used as respiratory substances in some plants, under certain conditions. During oxidation within a cell, all the energy contained in respiratory substrates is not released free into the cell, or in a single step. It is released in a series of slow step-wise reactions controlled by enzymes, and it is trapped as chemical energy in the form of ATP. Hence, it is important to understand that the energy released by oxidation in respiration is not (or rather cannot be) used directly but is used to synthesise ATP, which is broken down whenever (and wherever) energy needs to be utilised. Hence, ATP acts as the energy currency of the cell. This energy trapped in ATP is utilised in various energy-requiring processes of the organisms, and the carbon skeleton produced during respiration is used as precursors for biosynthesis of other molecules in the cell.
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