text: Glycolysis, which means “sugar splitting,” is the initial process in the cellular respiration pathway. Glycolysis can be either an aerobic or anaerobic process. When oxygen is present, glycolysis continues along the aerobic respiration pathway. If oxygen is not present, then ATP production is restricted to anaerobic respiration. The location where glycolysis, aerobic or anaerobic, occurs is in the cytosol of the cell. In glycolysis, a six-carbon glucose molecule is split into two three-carbon molecules called pyruvate. These carbon molecules are oxidized into NADH and ATP.  For the glucose molecule to oxidize into pyruvate, an input of ATP molecules is required. This is known as the investment phase, in which a total of two ATP molecules are consumed. At the end of glycolysis, the total yield of ATP is four molecules, but the net gain is two ATP molecules. Even though ATP is synthesized, the two ATP molecules produced are few compared to the second and third pathways, Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation.