Aerobic respiration

[Madgirl2]

Is aerobic respiration more effective at producing ATP than anaerobic respiration? If so, is this because CO2 and H2O are produced in the mitochondrion (ie is this second statement true on it's own and if so, does it explain the first statement?)

Please help! Desperate 1st year nurse struggling with physiology!!!

[aka estie]

It depends what you mean by anaerobic respiration.

If you mean fermentation, then yes - aerobic respiration produces up to 38 ATP molecules per glucose, whereas fermentation can only produce 2 (because it is basicallu just glycolysis followed by a conversion of pyruvate to either alcohol or lactic acid).

But if you mean anaerobic respiration (using an inorganic compuond such as nitrate or sulfate as the terminal electron acceptor at the end of teh electron transport chain instead of molecular oxygen), then no - both types of respiration generate equal amounts of ATP.