Question

A glucose fed yeast cell is moved from an aerobic environment to an anaerobic one. For the cell to continue generating ATP at the same rate, how would its rate of glucose consumption need to change?

Answer 1

The yeast cell would have to consume almost 19 times as much glucose for the production of the same amount of ATP molecules.

Explanation:

Aerobic respiration is complete oxidation of glucose in the presence of oxygen and obtains as much as 36-38 ATP molecules per glucose. On the other hand, anaerobic conditions do not support aerobic respiration and the yeast cells shift to anaerobic respiration. Anaerobic respiration is incomplete oxidation of glucose and produces only 2 ATP molecules per glucose. Therefore, to produce the same amount of ATP molecules, the yeast cell would have to consume glucose at the rates almost 19 times higher than the one under the aerobic conditions.