Cellular Respiration in Daily Life

Fermentation is not only a biological process, but a critical component of making alcohol
and bread. Cultures around the world and throughout history have used fermentation to
produce beer, wine and bread.

We already learned that alcohol fermentation, done by bacteria and yeast, produces
ethanol, which is alcohol, and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide makes bubbles,
which makes beer frothy, and causes bread to rise. Some would even say beer is the
most important invention in the world—watch How Beer Saved the World for more
details.
Human use of fermentation goes way back—ancient civilizations made alcohol, as early
as nine thousand years ago in Neolithic China (Dietler 2006). The ancient Sumerians
made beer (Michel and Patrick 1992), and some researchers even think that beer is
why we have civilization at all. Back in the day, humans lived nomadic lives, roaming
around to hunt. About 10,000 years ago, they started settling down and grew crops,
domesticated animals (really cut back on the need for orange hunting vests), and lived
in cities and villages. Some researchers believe humans started growing crops so that
they could make fermented beverages from them. One of the first crops grown during
the agricultural revolution was barley. Since beer is made from barley, anyone who
wanted to brew (and drink) beer would have to grow the barley first. Then they had to
stick around to brew the beer. Ancient people said goodbye to their previously nomadic
lives, planted barley, and became the first farmers and brewers. The first brewers
probably stumbled upon beer by accident, but they quickly figured out how to keep
making it, and today brewing is down to a science.

Archaeologists can tell that certain pots used to hold beer because of a residue they
find on artifacts. In ancient Mesopotamia, evidence suggests that the wealthy elite drank
wine and lower classes drank beer. This is not so surprising, since water was not
purified and beer was probably safer to drink. In both ancient and modern societies,
wine and other alcoholic beverages are integral parts of ceremonies and rituals (Dietler
2006). Before water purification and refrigeration, it was probably useful to have a
beverage around that would keep for awhile.
Alcohol was vital to ancient Greek and Roman societies, not just as an intoxicant, but
also as an important economic commodity. The Romans shipped huge quantities of
wine to their colonies. In the 1700s, alcohol was an important trade item to the colonial
powers participating in the West African slave trade. Rum, made from sugar cane, was
traded for slaves, who were then forced to work on those very same sugar plantations
(Dietler 2006).
Humans are not the only ones who enjoy fermented products. Lots of other animals
ingest ethanol when they eat ripe fruit. Fruit growing in the tropics, with the warm and
wet climates there, is especially prone to hosting fermenting yeast. Many tropical fruits
contain low levels of ethanol, so animals that eat large quantities of fruit are also
steadily taking in alcohol (Dudley 2002). The alcohol content of fruit adds more calories,
and therefore more nutrition, to the fruit (to animals living in the wild that have to search
for food all day, the more calories, the better). In fact, the fruit-eating patterns of our
primate ancestors and the high-calorie rewards from ethanol-laden fruit may provide the
evolutionary basis for human alcoholism (Dudley 2000, 2002).
That is enough about alcohol…on to a more important thing: bread. Bread is another
major product from fermentation. A world without bread would be like a day without
sunshine. Bread has had a pretty big impact on world history. After all, didn't the French
Revolution start because people had to wait in long lines for their baguettes? Hmm…
maybe it is time to go back and read A Tale of Two Cities.

The ancient Sumerians started making bread around 6000 BC (Belderok 2000).
Although grains had been cooked before, it was around then that people actually made
leavened bread—bread that has yeast in it, causing it to rise. Compare a tortilla to a loaf
of bread and you can easily see the difference.
Three thousand years after the invention of bread, the Egyptians really made heated
things up by inventing ovens to bake bread (Belderok 2000). In Europe, wheat was not
originally the preferred grain—barley was most popular, probably because of its use to
beer making. In the Middle Ages, rye became very popular, and finally in the 1700s
wheat was the basis of most breads.
The old school way of harvesting wheat:

Bread, like alcohol, became a staple to human diets and economies. Wheat and rye
were traded in large quantities in Europe as the population grew quickly in the 1200s.
So much of these grains went through Amsterdam that it became known as the
"Granary of Europe" (Belderok 2000). In the late 1700s, the center of grain production
for Europe shifted away from Amsterdam to Russia and the up-and-coming American
economy. Wheat production grew very rapidly in the U.S. and Canada, supplying grain
for an exponentially growing world population. Of course, farm and transportation
technology were influenced by the need to grow and transport large quantities of wheat.
So it might not be such a stretch to say our modern railroads and interstates owe their
existence to alcohol fermentation.
Cellular Respiration and Cancer

What happens when cellular respiration doesn't work properly? Disease. Scientists are
still studying the connections between glycolysis, cellular respiration and disease, but
some interesting links exist. For example, Alzheimer's may be linked to "aerobic
glycolysis," which is when cells use glucose that does not go into oxidative
phosphorylation.
Tumor cells have an interesting way to acquire energy: instead of oxidative
phosphorylation, the electron transport chain, and so on, tumor cells do something
called aerobic glycolysis. Aerobic glycolysis makes lactic acid, so it is like
fermentation…except it is done with oxygen. This is a pretty inefficient process, which
means cancer cells have to use way more glucose than healthy cells to survive and
reproduce.
When a cancerous cell changes its metabolism from normal to aerobic glycolysis, it is
called the Warburg effect, named after the scientist and Nobel laureate who discovered
it. Dr. Warburg thought that this type of metabolism might be what drives cancer. But it's
a hot topic of research. Scientists are currently trying to figure out if aerobic glycolysis is
a cause or effect of cancer (Taubes 2012). In other words, it's a chicken-or-the-egg
situation.
Alzheimer's disease might also be linked to aerobic glycolysis. Research has linked high
levels of aerobic glycolysis in the brain to deposition of plaques later in life (Vlassenko
et al. 2010). We all know plaque on our teeth is bad news. After all, dentists insist that
we remove our plaque daily with toothbrushes. Plaques in the brain are to blame for
Alzheimer's. Since they don't make brain brushes yet, researchers will have to keep
looking for a cure.

Leigh's syndrome is a rare neurological disease in children in which the central nervous
system degenerates. As the disease progresses, motor skills and muscle development
weaken. Although not totally understood, Leigh's syndrome is related to problems with
cellular respiration. Breakdowns in both the electron transport chain and the conversion
of pyruvate to acetyl CoA have been implicated as causes of Leigh's. Cells in Leigh's
syndrome patients have slower metabolisms and take up less oxygen and glucose than
healthy cells. In some cases, Leigh's syndrome has been treated successfully with
certain vitamins that are necessary for cellular respiration, such as thiamin; coenzyme
Q10; and vitamins C, K3, and E. (Vo et al. 2007).