Final answer:
Aerobic respiration is the process that uses oxygen to break down food through glycolysis, Kreb's cycle, and electron transport chain to produce ATP, occurring in the mitochondria of cells.
Step-by-step explanation:
One biological process that involves oxygen to breakdown food in three steps—glycolysis, Kreb's cycle, and electron transport chain—is aerobic respiration. This complex process takes the energy stored in glucose and transfers it to ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which is the energy currency of cells. Aerobic respiration is distinguished from anaerobic respiration by its requirement of oxygen in order to fully oxidize the glucose molecules. Through a series of reactions across the inner and outer membranes of mitochondria, glycolysis breaks a glucose molecule into two pyruvate molecules in the cytoplasm. These are then transformed into Acetyl-CoA and fed into the Krebs cycle within the mitochondrial matrix, where carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct. Lastly, oxidative phosphorylation uses the energy from the electrons extracted in the prior stages to drive the synthesis of ATP along the electron transport chain in the inner mitochondrial membrane.