Final answer:
The energy in food is used by the cell through a process called cellular respiration. This process involves breaking down glucose into energy-carrying molecules known as ATP. Cellular respiration occurs in three stages: glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The energy in food is used by the cell through a process called cellular respiration. This process breaks down glucose, which is the sugar produced by plants during photosynthesis, into energy-carrying molecules known as ATP. Cellular respiration occurs in three stages: glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation.
During glycolysis, glucose is converted into two molecules of pyruvate, releasing a small amount of ATP. In the citric acid cycle, pyruvate is further broken down, generating additional ATP and electron carriers. Finally, in oxidative phosphorylation, the electron carriers produced in the previous stages are used to generate a large amount of ATP through a series of reactions in the mitochondria.
Overall, cellular respiration allows cells to extract energy from food and convert it into ATP, which is used for various cellular processes.