Tracing Electron Flow
As glucose breaks down through cellular respiration, it gradually loses electrons and becomes more oxidized. You can see this by comparing glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆) to the final carbon-containing product, carbon dioxide (CO₂). The ratio of oxygen to carbon increases dramatically, showing that glucose has been highly oxidized.
The cell maintains a careful balance of NAD+ and NADH. When NADH delivers its electrons to the electron transport chain, it gets oxidized back to NAD+, which can then be reused. This recycling is crucial—if all the NAD+ became NADH and couldn't be converted back, cellular respiration would grind to a halt!
Without oxygen, cells can only perform glycolysis, which produces a mere 2 ATP molecules per glucose instead of the 38 possible with complete cellular respiration. This creates a problem: glycolysis still produces NADH, but without oxygen, there's no way to convert it back to NAD+.
🧪 Test yourself: If all the NAD+ in a cell was converted to NADH and couldn't be recycled, what would eventually happen to glycolysis? Answer:ItwouldstopbecauseNAD+isrequiredforoneofitssteps.