IB biology IA respiration

Background Research Yeast are eukaryotic microorganisms just like other organisms, they must respire in order to survive. Respiration can be defined as the controlled release of energy from organic compounds to form adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The type of respiration that occurs is called aerobic respiration. It occurs when glucose and oxygen are present. It can be summarized by the equation: . Enzymes play a very significant part in respiration. During the different stages of respiration, enzymes that are often found in the matrix of the mitochondria are used to speed up reactions in the body by reducing a reaction’s activation energy, which means that less energy is required to start a reaction. Enzymes need to collide with their respective substrates in order to generate a reaction, increasing the temperature will give the enzymes and their substrates more energy, increasing the likelihood of collisions to occur, and successful collisions to happen, ultimately increasing the rate of respiration. Triphenyl Tetrazolium Chloride (TTC) is a redox indicator often used in biochemical experiments to indicate cellular respiration. It is a white crystalline powder that can be dissolved in water, acetone and ethanol. TTC is colorless when oxidized and pink when reduced. TTC can be used to show the presence of active dehydrogenase enzymes by a change in color. TTC is heat and light unstable. During respiration, hydrogen ions or protons are released and picked up hydrogen acceptors, either NAD or FAD to form NADH+H+ or FADH respectively. In this experiment, I will be find out how long does it take for yeast to dehydrogenases in different temperatures with the help of TTC. I was intrigued that TTC could change color. By using the kinetic theory and collision theory, it can be assumed that as the temperature increases, it would be expected that the time taken for the TTC to be reduced would decrease. They need to collide in order for the reactions to occur. Besides