ABSTRACT
Under anaerobic conditions, aer following the glycolytic pathway, pyruvate may be converted into either lactate or ethanol. Under the presence of normal levels of oxygen, pyruvate and NADH are translocated to the mitochondria and used to produce 28 mol of additional ATP through the citric acid cycle and then to the electron transport chain; in this case, carbon dioxide and water are produced instead of lactate or ethanol (Berg et al., 2002).
