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3.5: True Respiration

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The common misconception about plants is that their only energy-related metabolic process is photosynthesis:

CO2 + H2O + energy carbohydrates + O2

However, as most eukaryotes, plants have mitochondria in cells and use aerobic (oxygen-related) respiration to obtain energy:

carbohydrates + O2 CO2 + H2O + energy

Typically, plants spend much less oxygen in respiration than they make in photosynthesis. However, at nights plants do exactly the same as animals, and make only carbon dioxide!


This page titled 3.5: True Respiration is shared under a Public Domain license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Alexey Shipunov via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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