The cellular as well as fermentation reaction and different factors that inhibit fermentation process

Introduction 

Cellular reaction refers to a set of metabolic processes and reactions that converts the biochemical energy obtained from food nutrient into energy in form of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) and other waste materials released. The process of fermentation, on the other hand, is the process that involves the chemical breakdown of food substances by yeast or other microorganisms and results in the release of energy as part of the by-product ( Metzler, 2003). The two methods have biological as well as social-economic importance. Fermentation can be performed in the laboratory through experiments for teaching and learning for both the instructors and the students. Positive and negative control experiments can be set up in-line with the actual test to determine if the real test behaves as it is expected theoretically and as an indicator of any errors done in the actual experiments. The paper discusses the cellular as well as fermentation reaction and different factors that inhibit fermentation process. 

The control experiment set-up for the fermentation process involves an experiment with yeast only where the value obtained by the reaction is 0.2ml, and a reset of the control experiment whereby glucose and yeast are mixed and the final value obtained is 5ml. In the experiment carried out, the following inhibitors were used to determine if the same inhibitors affect the process of fermentation. The inhibitors are: 

DNP (2,4-dinitrophenol) 

Cyanide 

Arsenate 

Glyphosate 

The values observed from the experiments 

Bar graph representation of inhibitors and the positive and the negative values of inhibitors reactions . 

In the inhibitors mentioned above , arsenate is the enzyme that significantly inhibits the process of fermentation as evidenced by the low value of the reaction products. As compared to other values obtained, the least value is 0.5, that is, the value in the arsenate reaction. In comparison with the control experiments, both negative and positive control experiment, the value for negative control experiment is very low an indicator of little or no reaction due to the absence of glucose just like in the experiment with arsenate enzyme that prevents any reaction from taking place. It is therefore evident that arsenate enzyme greatly inhibits the process of fermentation as compared to other enzymes . 

The inhibitors that are used in the experiment but do not significantly affect the reactions are: DNP, Cyanide, and Glyphosate . As evidenced by the values obtained for the reaction products with the inhibitors, the values are high just like in the positive control experiment used to gauge if the actual reaction goes as expected from the theoretical expectations. From the bar graph, the high values are represented by the long bars as an indicator that the reactions were slightly or not affected at all. 

All the inhibitors involved in the reaction affects both the cellular and the fermentation process in one way or another. The principal reason why the inhibitors affect the reactions to some extent is from the values obtained from the experiments which are slightly above the value for the negative control reaction. For instance, Cyanide inhibitor affects the cellular respiration by preventing the oxygen molecules from binding to other molecules for the purposes of electron chain transfer. DNP acts as an inhibitor for cellular respiration by sine it acts as one of the protonophores, therefore, allowing a leakage of protons towards the inner membrane of mitochondria and bypasses Adenosine triphosphate synthase. As a result, ATP energy production becomes less efficient, and thus , cellular respiration wastes a lot of energy inhibiting the reaction process. 

The inhibitor used in the experiment and is also an inhibitor of glycolysis is the arsenate inhibitor. Arsenate inhibitor mainly affects the glycolysis process by replacing the inorganic phosphate during the glycolysis reaction which yields 1, 3-biphosphoglycerate from the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. Arsenate further inhibits glycolysis by altering with the conversion of the pyruvate to form acetyl co-A, therefore, blocking the Krebs cycle process and as a result leading to further loss of the ATP molecule that is primarily used for energy production in glycolysis ( Metzler, 2003 ).Based on the figures obtained from the experiment, the low values of Arsenate inhibitor that almost match with the negative control experiment depicts that this inhibitor mainly affects the reactions where oxygen is absent and that included the glycolysis reaction. 

The part of cellular respiration that 2, 4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) inhibits is the energy production part inside the mitochondria of a cell since it acts as a precursor for other chemicals as well as biochemical in a cell ( Metzler, 2003 ). Also, the parts the role of cellular respiration that Cyanide inhibits is the oxygen binding sites with the final molecules of the electron chain transport (ECT), therefore affecting the process of cellular respiration. Based on the data obtained from the experiment performed, the high values as compared with the positive control experiment are evidence that the two inhibitors affect the cellular respiration as expected but not to a large extent as compared to the arsenate inhibitor. 

References 

Metzler, D. E. (2003). Biochemistry: the chemical reactions of living cells . Academic Press.