Question

5 Students were having a conversation about how plants and animals use the sugars (glucose) made from photosynthesis. Which of the following student do you agree with?

Maya: Plants and animals use the sugar in cellular respiration. They take glucose and oxygen and then create carbon dioxide, water and ATP as outputs. The bonds of ATP store the energy and are released as a phosphate gets released.


Marty: Plants and animals use the glucose in two ways. One, they use it as an ingredient in cellular respiration to make ATP which supplies the organisms with energy. Two, they use the glucose and break it down and then rebuild it as amino acids, lipids and other biomolecules to build essential components of the organism, giving the organism its mass.


Samuel: Plants and animals both need the sugar to go through photosynthesis. The sugars store energy as chemical energy and then they are used in the chloroplast to make light energy and ATP chemical energy


Kale: Plants use carbon dioxide and turn it into the sugars. The carbon is then found in the glucose where during respiration it is used to build biomolecules that give us our mass.

Answer 1

Maya and Marty provide the most accurate explanations. Maya correctly states that plants and animals use glucose in cellular respiration to produce ATP. Marty also notes that, in addition to ATP production, glucose is used to synthesize biomolecules, contributing to organismal mass.

Step-by-step explanation:

The conversation about how plants and animals use the sugars (glucose) made from photosynthesis reveals a basic understanding of fundamental biological processes. The student's question involves discussing which of the student's explanations is most accurate regarding the use of glucose in plant and animal life.

Maya's claim that plants and animals use the sugar in cellular respiration to produce carbon dioxide, water, and ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is correct. Cellular respiration indeed utilizes glucose and oxygen to release energy, stored in ATP bonds, which are then used by cells to perform various functions when a phosphate is released.

Marty's assertion includes both the correct understanding that glucose is used in cellular respiration to generate ATP, and that glucose serves as a building block for synthesizing biomolecules such as amino acids and lipids, which contribute to the organism's mass. Therefore, Marty's explanation adds an important aspect of the glucose usage in living organisms.

The explanation provided by Samuel, which suggests plants and animals use sugar to undergo photosynthesis, is incorrect because only plants, algae, and certain bacteria can perform photosynthesis, not animals. Instead, animals rely on consuming plants or other organisms to obtain glucose and then use cellular respiration to harness energy from it. Kale's response is partially accurate in that plants convert carbon dioxide into sugars during photosynthesis, and these sugars are indeed used to build biomolecules. However, the notion that respiration is used to build biomolecules is a misunderstanding; respiration's primary role is to break down glucose to release energy in the form of ATP.