Overflow metabolism refers to the seemingly wasteful strategy in which cells incompletely oxidize their growth substrate (e.g. glucose) instead of using the respiratory pathway, even in the presence of oxygen. As a result of employing this metabolic strategy, cells excrete (or "overflow") metabolites like lactate, acetate and ethanol. Incomplete oxidation of growth substrates yields less energy (e.g. ATP) than complete oxidation through respiration, and yet overflow metabolism—known as the Warburg effect in the context of cancer and the Crabtree effect in the context of yeast—occurs ubiquitously among fast-growing cells, including bacteria, fungi and mammalian cells. Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)