The purpose of this experiment was to test the effect of four different temperatures on the rate of fermentation in Saccharomyces by measuring the rate of carbon dioxide production. Saccharomyces, also known as yeast, is a unicellular, eukaryotic sac fungus and is useful for this experiment because of its characteristic of alcohol fermentation. The group was able to document the carbon dioxide production by measuring the volume, then marked at each of the temperature intervals which were tested at temperatures 4°C, 23°C, 37°C, and 60° Celsius. The experiment was conducted by pouring Saccharomyces in fermentation tubes, heating each of them at different temperatures, marking the rise of the gas bubbles in the fermentation tubes which indicated carbon dioxide production and measured the volume of the CO2 bubbles that formed in the tube.
Introduction.
Cellular respiration is the process by which microorganisms obtain the energy available in carbohydrates. They take the carbohydrates into their cytoplasm, and through a complex series of metabolic processes, they break down the carbohydrate and release the energy. The energy is generally not needed immediately, so it is used to combine ADP with phosphate ions to form ATP molecules (ARCC 2015) . During the process of cellular respiration, carbon dioxide is given off as a waste product. This carbon dioxide can be used by photosynthesizing cells to form new carbohydrates. Also in the process of cellular respiration, oxygen gas is required to serve as an acceptor of electrons. This oxygen gas is identical to the oxygen gas given off in photosynthesis. Cellular respiration involves three subdivisions.