READ: Respiration Stage 1

Stages of Respiration

Stages of Cellular Respiration

Cellular respiration involves many chemical reactions. As you saw earlier, the reactions can be summed up in this equation:

C6H12O6 + 6O2 ? 6CO2 + 6H2O + Chemical Energy (in ATP)

The reactions of cellular respiration can be grouped into three stages: glycolysis, the Krebs cycle (also called the citric acid cycle), and electron transport. Figure below gives an overview of these three stages, which are also described below.


Cellular respiration takes place in the stages shown here. The process begins with a molecule of glucose, which has six carbon atoms. What happens to each of these atoms of carbon?




CK-12 Foundation, Biology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/