A human cell has 5 glucose molecules, 2 pyruvate molecules and 1 acetyl-CoA. If oxygen is not available, how many ATP would be generated when the cell wants to use these different molecules to generate energy?
Since oxygen is required in the electron transport chain the cell is unable to break down glucose past pyruvate. This means that both pyruvates and acetyl-CoA are unable to help produce further ATP. The cell is still able to break down the 5 glucose molecules using glycolysis however instead of producing pyruvate its final product is lactic acid. Since each glucose is can create 4 ATP (net 2 ATP) five glucose molecules would produce 20ATP net (10ATP).
