Final answer:
The requirement for aerobic cellular respiration is oxygen, which is essential for converting glucose into ATP, the cellular energy currency. While photosynthesis produces oxygen and glucose, cellular respiration utilizes them to release energy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The component required for aerobic cellular respiration is oxygen. This process uses oxygen to convert the biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then releases waste products. Without oxygen, cells can only undergo anaerobic respiration, which yields much less ATP. In the context of photosynthesis vs. cellular respiration, while photosynthesis requires carbon dioxide and releases oxygen as a byproduct, aerobic cellular respiration requires oxygen and releases carbon dioxide as a byproduct.
ATP is the energy currency of the cell, providing the energy for most of the work done inside a living cell. All organisms, including autotrophs which produce their own food through photosynthesis, perform cellular respiration to release the energy stored in glucose and other nutrients, which is then used to produce ATP.