Introduction
Respiration is the cellular energy-yielding process that occurs across the life domains (bacteria, archaea, eykaryota).
Aerobic respiration, as opposed to anaerobic respiration, occurs in the presence of oxygen, accounts for most respiration that takes place, and produced up to 15 times more ATP molecules.
Its overall reaction is:
glucose + oxygen –> carbon dioxide + water + heat energy
You can notice that it is essentially the reverse of photosynthesis. Of course not all organisms obtain their respiration substrate (e.g. glucose/food) by making it themselves as plants do, yet all carry out respiration. Don’t make the mistake of associating plants with photosynthesis, and non-plants with respiration. They are different…